Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
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infinitesinewave
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Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by infinitesinewave » Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:02 pm

First off, I'm so glad I got Ableton 9. In order to keep everything stable and with minimal processing power during my live sets, I chose to use the VST instruments that come within Ableton Suite. I don't use Massive, FM8, Sylenth, or any of the "big hitters." I'm learning about sound design and the VSTs within Ableton are POWERFUL. Anyhow, I've played a few awesome shows in Los Angeles this summer and people are really excited about what they are seeing live. I just filmed a 1 hour live set in my studio that will stream on Savage Night Radio on October 20th. I just uploaded a small clip from the set to my youtube channel. There are TONS of tricks within it. Some I found on youtube, some I created myself.

I can improvise to any song I lay down in the mix using the 4 Quneos to control 9 different VST instruments I created within Ableton 9. I can switch the mode and the key of the notes within the Quneo on the fly and also I can switch or mix multiple instruments that the Quneos control on the fly as well. If you have any questions about what I'm doing and how I accomplish it, feedback, or suggestions, I'm here to reply.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ4Hc5Jd ... 0xM0WLn8bA

antarktika
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by antarktika » Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:03 pm

Ableton 9 doesn't come with *ANY* VST instruments, not a single one
/technicality

infinitesinewave
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by infinitesinewave » Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:23 pm

I guess I should not have called them VST instruments. I meant their own instruments, "Operator," "Analog," etc...

IS

fistikuffs
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by fistikuffs » Tue Oct 15, 2013 1:34 pm

Sounds really good. Are you using any VST at all or is it all Live's instruments and Fx?

mode:masters
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by mode:masters » Mon Oct 21, 2013 6:20 am

man, those 4 QuNeo's in that rack are off the hook :)

jestermgee
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by jestermgee » Mon Oct 21, 2013 6:51 am

I would love to see a kind of "how to" on how you setup that to play... Also, a more rigid board because I was just waiting for it to fall over. But...

Awesome :) Looks dazzling. Would love to see how you lay it all out and control the individual instruments.

Pretty crazy sounds for all native ableton.

infinitesinewave
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by infinitesinewave » Mon Oct 21, 2013 2:31 pm

They are all Live's own instruments and effects. No external VSTs. Mostly Analog and Operator. Even though you see the four Quneos wobble... that setup is pretty solid. Using the easle fixed my problem. A few months ago I built another stand before the easle u see in the vid. It looked cooler... (like the stand that holds the APC40) but knocked it down a few times. I'm really hitting those buttons hard. The easle solved my stability problems. A little wobble doesn't hurt.

The instruments themselves are controlled by dropping however many instruments you want into an instrument rack in the track that will pertain to 1 of the Quneos. Then, I assign a column of buttons on the APC40 to the "power" button (midi learn) of each individual instrument within the rack. I know that one column of buttons relates to 1 Quneo. To switch sounds, I just turn off one sound and turn on another. You can also layer them so that two or more instruments are being controlled together by 1 Quneo.

Does that make sense?

fistikuffs
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by fistikuffs » Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:11 pm

infinitesinewave wrote:
Does that make sense?
No :P

But i'm seriously impressed with the sounds your getting from Lives native fx/instruments. Top job!

infinitesinewave
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by infinitesinewave » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:26 pm

No :P
:(

The instruments within live are REALLY powerful... they're just not pretty. I think they should build separate skins for the instruments so they "feel" like a high end software synth. I know it's just appearance... but I think that's one of the reasons why they're not used as much.

I simplify. In other words once you find or create a sound that you like. Find the knobs within the instrument that tweak it out. Sometimes the "sweet" range will be from 60-74... so make sure that the full twist or slide of a knob in your midi controller just keeps the knob within the Ableton instrument in that "sweet" range. Also, assign that same knob on your midi controller to more than one knob within that instrument. It's pretty cool what you discover when you play around like this. I call it the "One knob to rule them all and in the darkness smite them" approach to sound design when you're performing/producing music on Ableton.

jestermgee
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Re: Ableton 9 & its VST instruments

Post by jestermgee » Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:33 pm

I think what you need to do is a tutorial vid showing how you construct one instrument and map it to the Quneos.

Looks like a lot of fun to play. Wish I had the concentration to setup an elaborate performance rig.

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