Ableton Forum

Hello, from France, the land of simpleton music !

I need a little help with building an effect rack, but I think it's a pretty simple one. If anyone has a few minutes to describe how I should proceed, I would be very thankful (and send you a superb track of the best mainstream french simpleton music around ) !

Here's what it needs to do : when applied to a track, the effect turns the volume/gain of the track down to -inf, on every beat (beat 1, beat 2, 3 and 4), for an adjustable amount of time (let's say from 1/64 to 1/4), releasing it to it's normal level. (This is different from a compressor + a sidechain, I really need a clean total cut, a little like a scratching dj crossfader).

That's all.

Does anyone have an idea how to do that ?

Thanx !

sounds to me like your wanting to build some-sort of Auto-Gate type effect
Start playing with the AutoPan effect, but with the Phase knob at 0. Then moving the rate knob (when working in beats not frequency).

I know you dont want sidechain but if you have the threshold at -60 and the rate at 100:1(limiting) and then play with your release time you will get it.
or if you are adimet of not using sidechain yes auto pan and a gate will work
1) set the auto pan's phase to zero this will give you a trembelo style effect that modulates the volume not pan.
2) select a square wave form play with the postion
3) add a gate so only signal you want comes through

hey re.mark and michael, thanks for your inputs !

ok so I setup an autopan as you both suggested (I found no square wave, but managed to get pretty close with the shape button), and it's a good start
but then I don't understand how I would be able to play with the duration of the cut

I also don't understand what the gate effet adds to this, because gate makes it relative, and I just want a clean dry cut, whatever the signal is

creepy_lord wrote:I don't understand how I would be able to play with the duration of the cut

By setting the rate to Beats (clicking the little quaver) you can then automate the Rate Knob so that the sound cuts in varying rhythms (teamed up with the offset feature), in perfect sync.
But yea the Sine wave with Shape at 100% should get you a fairly close square waveform shape.

If this doesnt help too much, could you provide some audio to give an example.

The square is where you change the shape
a gate with help you control the cut of the sample.

or you could take you sample as a clip in the session view, go to the envelope
unlink it
and set to say a 1/4 beat
and
draw in the waveform
and if you want a shorter waveform draw it and if you want a longer waveform draw it

thanx michael and re.mark for your explanations
sorry for not getting back at you earlier, I was out of town...
I tried what you suggested but I don't get the clean short cut I am looking for

again, what I am looking for, is a way to do a repeated clean "no sound" cut on a track, in an automatic way (like on every beat), and be able to adjust the length of the cut (and assign that length to a controler)

I got it!

you have a gate on the material to be chopped, sidechained to a group of dummy midi clips with a 'note length' on them.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?whmeyew1zcy

you can download the live set there.

Cheers.

woooow usetdobe !
you actually DID get it !!
thanx a lot, pretty smart

will be using this a lot

ok and just for the sake of argument (well it would be cool too), any idea how to not need to play a clip for it to work ? like using a little step sequencer attached to the effect so it works in an autonomous way ?

creepy_lord wrote:ust for the sake of argument (well it would be cool too), any idea how to not need to play a clip for it to work ? like using a little step sequencer attached to the effect so it works in an autonomous way ?

thats not possible as long as the gate always effects the track its applied to and ur just able sidechain from other tracks.

i also have no idea how itd be possible in any other way as with the gate.


regards

paq