Help for someone who just switched from FL9 to Live 8

[kungfupanda 2]

Hey, so i decided I was getting too old for FL and moved onto Ableton. Instead of getting into bad habits with Ableton I want to start fresh and do things properly. So here's a few questions I have:

1. If im constructing a percussion track for a song, the way to do is to use a drum rack and just drag my drum samples onto each pad and record them off the drum rack? Or are there other, easier ways?

2. The way i make music is i sample tiny parts of recordings of me playing instruments or parts of songs (kinda like gold panda or the field) and use these as "instruments" to make chord progressions or melodies. I was wondering if there is some way of doing this other than dragging samples into a drum rack and playing them.

Please give me some pointers if you can, cus Ableton is a bit intimidating for me right now, after using FL for so long.

[Warrior Bob]

Welcome to Live and I hope you enjoy it.

1. If im constructing a percussion track for a song, the way to do is to use a drum rack and just drag my drum samples onto each pad and record them off the drum rack? Or are there other, easier ways?

This is how I do it personally - I don't know of any faster way. Drum racks are cool in that they work like a big drum machine. You have all the individual channels that get summed together, and you can effect the whole thing at once using effects or the internal return channels inside the rack.

If you plan to do a lot of individual drum processing during mixdown, one trick I like to use is to completely avoid using returns within the drum rack, and use the drum rack for composing and arranging. Then, when it's time to get the mix to sound more cohesive, I will use the "extract chains" function to pull one of the drum pads out into its own MIDI track, where it can have its own global sends and its own track mixing section that I don't have to expand the drum rack to see.

2. The way i make music is i sample tiny parts of recordings of me playing instruments or parts of songs (kinda like gold panda or the field) and use these as "instruments" to make chord progressions or melodies. I was wondering if there is some way of doing this other than dragging samples into a drum rack and playing them.

There are two other ways I know of. If you just want to have a sample play back (and have the option to warp it with Live's clip warping tools) you can load the sample up as a clip in an audio track. If you want to chop it up, you can add warp markers and use the "slice to new MIDI track" function. Copy/pasting it around the Arrangement view's timeline is nice and easy too.

The other way is more like what I think you're describing, and that is to load your sample up into the Simpler or Sampler devices on a MIDI track, and use MIDI to play the sample at a variety of pitches. Dragging samples into drum racks actually does this interally, except it's a bit harder to send different notes to it (say, to make chords) since each MIDI note is tied to one drumpad.

Please give me some pointers if you can, cus Ableton is a bit intimidating for me right now, after using FL for so long.

Read the manual! It's really good. Just read the sections about the parts you're using for starters, but read anything that looks interesting. Try things out. Live is very fun to experiment with. If possible, record your experimentations.

[Ayjent]

I've also recently incorporated Ableton live into my music production after using ACID, FL Studio, and Reason for many years. I find that they all have their strengths and weaknesses, including Ableton. Ableton is definitely versatile in playing/DJing in a live setting or just jamming out ideas - I love it in that respect. As far as producing, I find the workflow a little hard to get used to and haven't fully embraced the Arrangement view side of things in Ableton. I actually think FL Studio has come a very long way since it began and has some very powerful tools for production - its not just a toy or beginner product in my opinion. It really comes down to what works best for you and your work flow.

With Ableton - I have found that using a MIDI controller like the trigger finger or APC 20/40 with the stems of a track or all of the samples in a track in the session view is a really good way to improvise and get a feel for different arrangements of a track. However, I struggled with Ableton and didn't see what all the fuss was about for several year (trying it in several iterations from v4 to v8) before finally embracing the session side of the program, and now I am getting more comfortable with the overall program.

I can't really help you out with the main jist of your question, but there are some really good tutorials on how to do things on the web -
http://abletonlife.com/screencasts
http://www.youtube.com/djvespers#p/u/21/v2pj6AtN56s

[yur2die4]

Have you used the slice to midi feature yet? You can add warp markers on all the points of a clip that you want as a slice, then right click the clip and slice to new midi track. Takes a bit figuring out which template you want. You can also make your own

Edit: ahhh crap. This is what I get for not reading the above posts thoroughly :/ sorry haha

[H20nly]

i've had lifetime upgrades to FLS Producer since ver 5 and i have to say that making a drum pattern on that piece of software is bar none the fastest method for me. so i can understand where Live seems less intuitive in that sense. when i'm in a hurry and need to figure out a tempo with a guitar player or just need a down and dirty drum beat to get the vibe going (without having to keep playing it) FL is amazing. some of the effects are damn good too. the thing is, once you have a drum pattern going in Live the amount of fine tuning and swapping you can do seems a lot more advanced than FL has to offer. IMO.

another thing about Live is that once you get used to it, i think you'll begin to appreciate the way everything fits together in one window... well 2 if you count session as one view and arrangement as the second. still in FL i've found that if i add an effect or 2 to my kick, and to my snare, and work the pattern, and build the song, and use the browser, and add effects to hats, shakers, other bits of kit/percussion it doesn't take long until i have a mess of windows to close and sort through. Cubase is the same way... and i guess Live is if you use a lot of plugins but my point is that the root application is clean. you can see everything at once or change a view in a logical way to get to what you want to see with the tap of a button on the keyboard or mouse. to me, this is smoother in the long run... but, it is different so experience and time are your best friends in this regard.

don't give up on FL. keep using it, BUT!!! use the export feature... Live loves OggVorbis files. i promise. also, you can rewire FL into Live so you can use both at the same time, together if you wish.

definitely check out the links and such that these guys have given you... and don't give up.

hope this helps a little...

[Warrior Bob]

This is turning into a pretty good "introduction to Ableton Live features" thread :)

[kungfupanda 2]

Thanks so much everyone for the warm welcome and the great advice! I'm gonna look at all those links now and spend today familiarizing myself with everything.

Thanks!