THE Rack List. (What can you do with Racks?)

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
friend_kami
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by friend_kami » Fri Apr 17, 2009 4:52 pm

rbmonosylabik wrote:wow, that bad boy looks sick!
its pretty fun ;)
if you make it better (which i hope you do hah) dont be shy to post the result here. im always working on improving it while still having it easily tweaked and still playable. i dont like autoracks so much because they are too random for me. this is just a nice blend between both heh.

The Phat Conductor
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by The Phat Conductor » Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:36 pm

jlgrimes wrote:Probably mentioned before.

Stereo Panner (audio effect rack).

1. Drag in a utility device.
2. Select device and press Ctrl+G.
3. Drag in a second utility device under the 1st chain.
4. Set 1st utility device input to left.
5. Set 2nd utility device input to right.
6. Map the 1st utility pan to macro 1 (call it Pan Left or something).
7. Map the 2nd utility pan to macro 2 (call it Pan Right or something).


Now you will be able to pan your stereo tracks anywhere in the panorama like DAWs like Pro Tools.
AWESOME!

LOVING IT!
ill gates aka the phat conductor
producer, performer + ableton/music teacher

http://www.illgates.com

bland_handl
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Location: sydney

Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by bland_handl » Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:25 pm

friend_kami wrote:i took that rack idea and made a little (little?) fsu rack based on my old live performer rack i made for 7.

http://nwrecords.com/storage/racks/effe ... FSU-er.adg

perhaps someone might find it interesting.
all put together in one nice glitchy package. wahu.
hey dude - I find it interesting! but the download only comes out as a .txt (text) file - any ideas to help me get it to work in live?

friend_kami
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by friend_kami » Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:31 pm

bland_handl wrote:
friend_kami wrote:i took that rack idea and made a little (little?) fsu rack based on my old live performer rack i made for 7.

http://nwrecords.com/storage/racks/effe ... FSU-er.adg

perhaps someone might find it interesting.
all put together in one nice glitchy package. wahu.
hey dude - I find it interesting! but the download only comes out as a .txt (text) file - any ideas to help me get it to work in live?
its an adg file, meaning that its a native rack in live.
just save it as adg somewhere then browse (in live) to that location and drag into your set.

Jekblad
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by Jekblad » Mon May 18, 2009 5:17 am

a repost from the general forum in case you missed it.

Image

I like instant complex rhythm's ala Camel Space etc. Live has a "gate" but it just sits there like a total neb! Sheesh.

Live's Autopanner can get you some nice stutter type stuff, but there's no LFO to modulate the rate, and it's just one rhythm. weak.

Enter the jGate audio effect rack!!
This rack uses a http://www.covops.org inspired trick to move seamlessly between two separate rhythms, creating a longer and more intricate rhythmic pattern with Auto pans. Via the chain selector you can (manually) crossfade between two independent complex rhythms. A utility plug at the end brings left and right channels together to make it glue as one sweet sounding pulse.

Changing the Sync rate in the first rack changes the timing in which information is feed to the left and right racks, resulting in different rhythms and effects. There's a wet/dry so you can put the pulse on top of the original sound, for just a hint of movement. Changing wavetype, pulsing, soft/hard, and definition all have a smaller effect on the sound, allowing a ton of variation on the SAME rhthmn. Width will spread the sound out and separate the one rhythm into the two rhythms in the left right speakers.

The nested rack allows you to choose between the two rhythms, an offset of both rhythms, an overall amount, and the actual timing of the separate left and right racks.

Hope this make sense I feel like i'm having a hard time summing it up, but hopefully you'll understand when you open it up.

LIVE 8 (Suite) if you don't have the suite activate the demo if you want to hear the rack in action, or just place the rack in your "audio effects rack" folder and tweak away on whatever you want.
http://www.zshare.net/info.html?6011682 ... 47f04640d3

i name anything i create starting with the letter "j" so i can sort of easily find it via search in the browser. It's a nice trick, you should try it!

another rack: Easy keyboard parts

Put together this rack (in Live 8 and used an instance of operator ) to make life easier for making keyboard parts. Being a guitar player by trade, i suck at making "cool" keys parts.

Image
This rack allows you to use one note to make a (diatonic 3 note) chord. Pretty standard stuff there but the list goes on.
Macro's to:
-Choose between root, 1st, and 2nd inversions
-Move the third degree up/down a scale tone (sus2 or sus4)
-Velocity settings for the 3rd and 5th degree (allows you to pull out a single note melody line from your progression)
-Overal Velocity settings to bring "life" if needed, set you hi/low points to acquire desired tamber.
-An easy knob to set what key you're in

An attached Rhythm rack allows you dial in some killer rhythms and stutters. There are two rhythm generators in it with separate controls for velocity and gate and their rates. turning on BOTH at the same time can get you some cool stuff, especially with the random velocity turned on in the first rack.

if you don't have live 8, you should be able to drop the adg file into your Midi effects rack folder and use it no prob. If you don't have operator you can put it into demo mode if you want to hear the little bit i did demo some of the different textures it can create with one simple line.


PS: do not EVER let this rack get in the hands of one of those shady hip hop listeners...
jChords.zip - 0.03MB

please enjoy

edit
inspired a bit by consequence from sugarbytes. just wanted a tool to help write parts. after you have your killer part, transpose your original clip down and use it for the bassline, regardless of what your new part sounds like it contains the "root" notes.

you can get different types of chords by playing "wrong" notes. The scale plug will make them sound correct but it sends different information to the chord plug, so you'll end up with some nice variations. It's sort of another way to access your sus2 and sus4's without riding the automation as much.
2.4 ghz Macbook Pro 8gb RAM, SSD, Live 9 Suite, Puremagnetik, Minimal Talent

audiovoid
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 8?)

Post by audiovoid » Sat May 23, 2009 10:16 pm

I posted this on a previous thread and thought I'd share it here as well.
It's a rack for punch Mute and Transformer Punch in when the Volume slider is turned down.
In order for it to work properly, you need a midi controller with buttons assigned as momentary (mom).
To make it work for keys, pads, note messages you will probably have to use something like Bomes Midi Translator.
..
Here's the original thread, if interested:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=110223


....
Here's a link to my rack that I made for this. Actually this is a combination of that and my old "dj hp/lp filter rack" with automatic high end dip as you sweep through those screaming frequencies towards the top.
The top macros are for the filter/dj controls, and the lower ones are for the channel volume, mute punch, and Transformer Punch in (only when volume fader is down). Also remember that for the punch/transform controls to really work you need a controller that has momentary buttons (or the ability to edit them and change them to mom).

http://audiovoid.net/abe/av-DJ_EQ_highT ... hs.adg.zip

Hit me up if anyone has any questions.
.......
ps. This rack was created with Live 8
Last edited by audiovoid on Sat May 23, 2009 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
audiovoid.net
.............
Macbook pro,
MacPro 8 core
running OSX, &
WinXP through Bootcamp and Fusion

Angstrom
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by Angstrom » Sat May 23, 2009 11:04 pm

Jekblad wrote: i name anything i create starting with the letter "j" so i can sort of easily find it via search in the browser. It's a nice trick, you should try it!
I recommend opening the info view while you have your rack loaded and typing your name in there (using 'edit info text'), plus a load of keywords.
Now when you search for generic named items like a 'gate' or a 'delay' you search for 'jekblad gate' or 'jekblad delay' you will not be buried under factory presets, but instead find the preset you want really quickly.

I use this trick all the time since I got Live 8.

djgroovy
Posts: 2025
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 12:15 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by djgroovy » Sun May 24, 2009 6:22 pm

Angstrom wrote:
Jekblad wrote: i name anything i create starting with the letter "j" so i can sort of easily find it via search in the browser. It's a nice trick, you should try it!
I recommend opening the info view while you have your rack loaded and typing your name in there (using 'edit info text'), plus a load of keywords.
Now when you search for generic named items like a 'gate' or a 'delay' you search for 'jekblad gate' or 'jekblad delay' you will not be buried under factory presets, but instead find the preset you want really quickly.

I use this trick all the time since I got Live 8.
8O I just fell in love with you!

friend_kami
Posts: 2255
Joined: Mon May 29, 2006 10:10 pm

Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by friend_kami » Tue May 26, 2009 1:30 am

well. thank you for THAT.
im finding it hard hard haaaard to keep a good sort order for all my crap hah.

Angstrom wrote:
Jekblad wrote: i name anything i create starting with the letter "j" so i can sort of easily find it via search in the browser. It's a nice trick, you should try it!
I recommend opening the info view while you have your rack loaded and typing your name in there (using 'edit info text'), plus a load of keywords.
Now when you search for generic named items like a 'gate' or a 'delay' you search for 'jekblad gate' or 'jekblad delay' you will not be buried under factory presets, but instead find the preset you want really quickly.

I use this trick all the time since I got Live 8.

moxie38
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by moxie38 » Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:15 pm

Jekblad...you are simply maaaaaaahvelous
WE are the music makers and WE are the dreamers of dreams!
-Willy Wonka

BentoSan
Posts: 47
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2009 9:48 am

Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by BentoSan » Sun Jun 07, 2009 6:12 am

This is one of the things i do with racks - http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=116482

Ableton Live Native Smart-mixing -
Used to create instant room in your mixes as you mix channels together using an elaborate side-chain compressor routing setup! What i mean by creating room is that particularly when your mixing low frequencies together your mix can start to sound muddy, usually a dj gets around this by eqing out certain sounds to create room for more sounds. Smart-Cuing helps to automates this boring task of eqing out frequencies to create room for more layers of sound. This lets you spend more time doing more important things like playing with your effects, sends, ghost-clips, synths or anything else you feel is much more worthy of your time than endlessly working at creating room for other tracks.

Smart-Cuing:
The smart-mixer instantly create the room but to get a super tight mix you need to tweak just how much room is going to be created, if any at all - this is where the smart-cue concept comes in. The smart-mixer only creates room as channels are mixed together, but to be able to pre-listen to room to what your mix is going to sound like with the room that you have created smart-cuing gives you the abilty to hear the smart-mixing before its applied to your master-mixdown. So while the track that you hear on the headphones might have its low frequencies being ducked by the channels that you havent mixed in yet, the audience doesnt hear this ducking effect.

Also because the smart-mixing is using compressors and not EQ's to create room for new sounds, the smart-mixer is only going to create room when its needed so you will get a much nicer sounding mix than EQ's alone can provide. This ducking technique is often used in the mix-down stage of productions to get mix-downs sounding really tight - now you can use this same technique in your live sets!

arachnaut
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by arachnaut » Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:02 am

In another thread, I announced a new package of free effects racks for Live 7 and Live 8.

TrackTeam Audio is distributing them.

See this topic for the announcement:
http://forum.ableton.com//viewtopic.php?f=1&t=118003

There are effects that utilize extreme resonances, lots of filters with comb-type characteristics, some dispersion filters that smear the spectrum, and many others. There's even a weird programmable fractal composer made from 6 nested arpeggiators.

These audio and MIDI effects use a lot of CPU horsepower.

In fact, there are some effects in there that very people will ever be able to use in real-time - at least not with all the stages of processing enabled.

Still, these run fine when rendering or freezing tracks, and most of the effects are so heavily modulated that you won't want to run many other tracks in parallel anyway.

I'm not really happy until I'm using all those CPU cycles I bought and neither should you!

You can read about the effects here:

http://www.arachnaut.net/audio/Overload/Effects.pdf

Listen to a short demo made from a one note looping midi clip to hear how the macro knobs control modulation:

http://www.arachnaut.net/audio/JimHurle ... iFi-v1.mp3

I grew up watching 1950's Sci-Fi - you can make every sound effect in that era from this one rack (and it does play well in real-time).

This set of racks is not for the DJ or the beat-oriented composer, at least that was not my focus. It is oriented to hard-core experimenters mostly.

Oh, and did I say they are free? You already paid enough for the CPU that can use them.

There is no significant difference between the CPU used in the Live 7 or Live 8 versions and the racks are identical, however, the Live 8 versions use some of the new options on the time delay effects that make for nice pitch shifting instead of zipper noise.

I tested them in Live 7 and Live 8 on an Athlon dual core 4200 (several years old) PC and a 1 year-old dual core MacBook Pro - both give acceptable real-time CPU usage. You'll need something in that class or better to use these effectively.

arachnaut
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by arachnaut » Thu Jun 25, 2009 3:47 am

This rack is for Live 8.

It is an Audio Effect Rack that causes extreme forms of distortion.

http://www.arachnaut.net/audio/Overload ... pinner.adg

Not for the faint-of-heart.

[nednerb]
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by [nednerb] » Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:44 pm

This one is likely in the big list somewhere, but in case peeps like me are scanning around it and missing lots,

It's easy to make a level-complex dry/wet knob for any effect with a rack with multiple chains and then using the chain selecter. Put your effect full bore in the wet chain in a rack, then fade the dry and wet chains across zones in various ways to transition.

Alternatively, you can set zones for three or more chains with one dry and multiple effect pathways.

In all cases, set a rack macro to the chain selector for quick access.

This kind of trick will be apparent to anyone who is well versed in Live and racks, but it may elude newbies who want a dry/wet control when there is no direct knob!

Cheers,
Brenden aka
nerBeater
Ableton Live user since 2005
http://ReverbNation.com/nerBeater

arachnaut
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Re: THE Rack List. (What can YOU do with Racks in Live 6?)

Post by arachnaut » Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:31 pm

arachnaut wrote:This rack is for Live 8.

It is an Audio Effect Rack that causes extreme forms of distortion.

http://www.arachnaut.net/audio/Overload ... pinner.adg

Not for the faint-of-heart.
I accidentally uploaded the mono version.

Here is the stereo version:

http://www.arachnaut.net/audio/Overload ... r%20v2.adg

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