Ableton Forum

No the Auto Filter can absolutely function without the "auto" part. Map the cutoff frequency of the default low pass setting to a knob and you've got your DJ sweep.

Or am I missing something?

Sounds like you have the 'Quantize Beat' function on when using the Auto Filter. If so turn that off. Otherwise, it works exactly as desired. Pick your bandpass, map a knob to the frequency, viola.

Auto filter is what you are looking for, the problem with it is that it's quite old and probably doesn't stand against more new analog emulations as The drop.

That being said Eq8 has a very good emulation of analog filters by the guy who made Thdee drop and The glue, two very highly regarded plug ins for their emulation of analog.

misterhops wrote:Also - i use "analog" on in the sense that that was the name of the filter in that video - which I have been constantly looking for. Once I saw that guy use it I was like "that's the filter I've been looking for! Surely it's included in Live Suite 9!"

Yeah, I see that now
But while his filter might be doing what you want, the analog part of it is not what is necessary for this!
And you can use all of Autofilters functions without the auto part.
If you are new to Live it is better to dive in and find out what it can do, before you buy any more gear!

Yeah I'll play around with it more. I just figured there was a simple one knob does all effect. I'm used to working with Traktor, which has a filter effect that is literally controlled with a single knob. No customization, etc. And yes, agreed about diving in before making more purchases! I've spent enough money as it is!

login wrote:Auto filter is what you are looking for, the problem with it is that it's quite old and probably doesn't stand against more new analog emulations as The drop.

That being said Eq8 has a very good emulation of analog filters by the guy who made Thdee drop and The glue, two very highly regarded plug ins for their emulation of analog.

This is NOT true!
EQ8 clips digitally when overdriven, as I learned the hard way :/

misterhops wrote:Negative on the auto filter. Yes, the actual sound I'm looking for does come out of auto filter, but not the functionality. To my knowledge there is no way of turning off it's "auto" features. Meaning if you activate it it sweeps and decides which sounds to filter out without you physically controlling it by rotary. It's annoying. You have I think 6 options of how you want your filter to perform.

Have you perhaps changed the default setting to turn on the LFO? My autofilter doesn't sweep when I turn it on. It's just a simple filter. If you group it and then map the filter cut-off to a macro then you can control the cut-off from your midi controller just as you would any other "analogue" filter on a mixer - albeit with more functionality as you can change the range that it moves between, amongst other things.

I might be missing something though?

I would like it if people stopped obsessing about the emulation of analog filters and synths on digital systems. It's the signal processing equivalent of trying to make guitar rock with just trombones. Analog isn't a mark of quality... it is a set of behaviours.

Digital audio will pass through at least one analogue filter before it reaches your ears.

oddstep wrote:I would like it if people stopped obsessing about the emulation of analog filters and synths on digital systems. It's the signal processing equivalent of trying to make guitar rock with just trombones. Analog isn't a mark of quality... it is a set of behaviours.

This is not about obsession, this is about the ability to overdrive the filter and it sounding nice instead of digitally clipped!
For me this is actually quite important and not some mysterious added "warmness" or other such nonsense.

The NI Traktor 12 DJ Effects VST are half price currently ($34) - the peak filter does exactly what you want

It sounds like you want EQ3. Page 315 of the manual:

'If you have ever used a good DJ mixer you will know what this is: An EQ that allows you to adjustthe level of low, mid and high frequencies independently. Each band can be adjusted from -infinite dB to +6 dB using the gain controls. This means that
you can completely remove, for example, the bass drum or bassline of a track, while leaving the
other frequencies untouched.
You can also turn on or off each band using the On/Off buttons located under the gain controls.
These buttons are especially handy if assigned to computer keys.
EQ Three gives you visual confirmation of the presence of a signal in each frequency band using
three LEDs. Even if a band is turned off, you can tell if there is something going on in it. The internal
threshold for the LEDs is set to -24 dB.
The frequency range of each band is defined via two crossover controls: FreqLo and FreqHi. If
FreqLo is set to 500 Hz and FreqHi to 2000 Hz, then the low band goes from 0 Hz to 500 Hz,
the mid band from 500 Hz to 2000 Hz and the high band from 2000 Hz up to whatever your
soundcard or sample rate supports.
A very important control is the 24 dB/48 dB switch. It defines how sharp the filters are cutting
the signal at the crossover frequency. The higher setting results in more drastic filtering, but needs
more CPU.

Note: The filters in this device are optimized to sound more like a good, powerful analog filter
cascade than a clean digital filter. The 48 dB Mode especially does not provide a perfect linear
transfer quality, resulting in a slight coloration of the input signal even if all controls are set to
0.00 dB. This is typical behavior for this kind of filter, and is part of EQ Three’s unique sound. If
you need a more linear behavior choose 24 dB Mode or use the EQ Eight.

^ Good call.

Did they also make improvements to EQ3 with Live 9? I can't recall.

stringtapper wrote:No the Auto Filter can absolutely function without the "auto" part. Map the cutoff frequency of the default low pass setting to a knob and you've got your DJ sweep.

Or am I missing something?

surprised this discussion is still rolling when this is the answer. auto filter is a full multimode filter within live. it doesn't try to be "analog" that i know of, but what does that even mean in this case? when you load up auto filter by default (no preset), the envelope, beat sync and LFO should all be off, leaving you free to modify the resonance and cutoff as you wish (either by midi-mapping it, dragging yer mouse, or using something like a push or an APC40 that maps to device parameters).

really, this should be super easy. has lp/bp/hp settings as well. live is meant to be deeper than traktor, so things aren't QUITE as simple, but the functionality is there.

If you want an actual analogue filter, get a vintage external effect, a hardware synth that allows external routing or a software effect that specialises in analog emulations.

Ableton is digital software and proud of it. The two analogue emulation effects (Amp and Analog) are the two worst devices in my opinion. They were never top of the line from day one and analog reproductions tend to age horribly.

Get your own hardware/software if you must get into that whole analogue craze but please don't ruin the sleek, streamlined workflow of Live with bloat for the rest of us.