Ableton Forum

Hey everyone!

First off, I'm addicted!
Me and my roomate both just recently purchased Ableton and have been trying to learn as much as possible in the two days we've had it but it seems like we both seem to have questions about the same things.

Where do I find master tracks for songs so I can sample a songs bass line or their vocals etc, instead of only being able to edit the whole track?Where can I find more samples?

How do I save my song into mp3 form for C.D. use and so I can put it in a media plaer/upload to myspace?

How do I save a sound I've created?

I also can't figure out how to remove or delete parts of audio tracks ?I can only quantize and loop


I know these are alot of qustions lol so please feel free to anwser as little or as many as you can!

Thanks alot

-Stoked

-Stem tracks ("master tracks") are sometimes available, but there's no guarantee that you'll find them. Some services like Beatport will sell stem tracks for certain songs. Otherwise, you can try searching for torrents, etc. Good luck.

-Live doesn't render to MP3's (yet). When you've finished a track, go to Export/Render under the file tab. You can choose to render to a .wav or .aiff file. There are many options out there for then converting this rendered file to an MP3, iTunes being one.

-When you create a sound you want to save, there will usually be a save butten (little circle with a picture of a hard-disk) somewhere on the device. IOW, if you create a sound with operator, click the save button on the operator device and name the sound in Live's browser.

-Not sure exactly what you mean by 'remove or delete parts of audio tracks'. By looping the parts you want, you are effectively removing the parts you don't want (unless you mean removing specific instruments, in which case you'll have to look for stems). If I'm misunderstanding you here, please elaborate.

Have fun!

Thanks alot for anwsering these questions for me!

And by delete I mean remove whole parts of the song and keep there seperation between notes. If you only loop the part that you want you lose the whole structure of the part of the song you wanted. Sorry but my musical vocabulary is very limited as of yet haha so it's really hard for me to properly explain this


And about Stem tracks.
How do so many people remix popular songs without stem tracks being easily accesible?
Are they just doing what they can with the entire's song's track or are they using a third party program to isolate the bass/drums/synth or w/e? for example

Stoked On Life wrote:Thanks alot for anwsering these questions for me!

And by delete I mean remove whole parts of the song and keep there seperation between notes. If you only loop the part that you want you lose the whole structure of the part of the song you wanted. Sorry but my musical vocabulary is very limited as of yet haha so it's really hard for me to properly explain this

you mean 'crop.' right click on a clip, select crop.

And about Stem tracks.
How do so many people remix popular songs without stem tracks being easily accesible?
Are they just doing what they can with the entire's song's track or are they using a third party program to isolate the bass/drums/synth or w/e? for example

just start playing with song mashes, layering one song on top of the other. use EQ to help them mix together. listen to breaks to steal from songs, go practice and play then good things will happen, but you need to put in the time.

Stoked On Life wrote:And about Stem tracks.
How do so many people remix popular songs without stem tracks being easily accesible?

Haha, well there's gotta be work involved here somewhere, right? This is an artform in itself....lots of techniques.

Keep it fun....you can learn a lot just from messing around in Live.

And seriously, RTFM. It may sound boring but the Ableton manual is actually really well written and you are guaranteed to learn a lot from it. I had the program for a couple of years before I read the manual, thought I knew it all, and ended up learning a lot from it. Sometimes it's nice to read just for fun!

ethios4 wrote:And seriously, RTFM. It may sound boring but the Ableton manual is actually really well written and you are guaranteed to learn a lot from it. I had the program for a couple of years before I read the manual, thought I knew it all, and ended up learning a lot from it. Sometimes it's nice to read just for fun!

also, read the Tips and Tricks sticky. if you can digest all that you'll be a pretty damn good Live user.

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27120

definitely leave your help box open, that was one of the things I really like about learning Live.

Thanks so much I'm having so many revelations!

And by delete I mean remove whole parts of the song and keep there seperation between notes. If you only loop the part that you want you lose the whole structure of the part of the song you wanted.

If I'm understanding you, try using volume automation. From the clip view, click the button with the "E" for the envelope view. Click on your Volume envelope and you can set the volume to 0 for the parts you don't want to hear.

Another way would be to copy the track to arrangement view, do your editing there, and then select everything, right click, consolidate track, then copy back to session. Not positive about this though.

Okay I've edited a track. I now have a clip in the bottom of the interface. I want to just save that new clip/loop I just made, so I can use it in a future live sessions. How do I save it and where in the browser is it saved to?

do not save it to the library. only ever let Live touch the Library, at least until you really know what you're doing.

just drag and drop it to a folder of your choice. when in doubt with Live, try drag and drop, it works all over.

This will sound silly, but where is the e.q. dial?

From your audio effects folder you can add either an EQ Eight or EQ Three to the track, just drag and drop

Audio Effects in the instrument browser on the left... where the loops and instruments are.

You're looking for EQ 8 - or EQ 3 if you just want to quickly roll off one end or the other.

Okay so I've begun to mash a Justice and Timbaland song together. I've found something I want to loop, But I only want it to loop twice, how do I set it to do that? YOu would think the start, end, position, length, dals would do something about that but they don't really seem to.

While in Arrange view you can loop it... highlight it and copy it. Then hit ctrl + D to duplicate it and place the loops where you want along the timeline.

OR... you can work with clips in Session view. copy and paste your loop from Arrange to Session. I'm no clip expert. I'll let one of these other cats fill you in on that... or just say - hit the manual.
I don't play with loops other than my own and I live in Arrange view until its time to play with the mixer... Live is more flexible than I am right now.
You're on your way.
Have fun and remember you're not going to change the face of music this year... next year though... anything can happen.