Ableton Forum

im having a problem when i sit down to begin working on an ideas i have. im still new to live and have studio installed, so im bombarded by what seems like a hugh selection of instruments, drum kits and effects. And end up loosing my initial idea and musical spark trying to sort through them to find something usable. can someone give me a short list of some of the more simple and i guess generic instruments i can start out with? im looking for a overall sound similar to the postal service, that laid back slowed down soft synth (im not even sure what genera that would really be) and am trying to have my sets contain a beat track, a background chord style synth, a background/bass line synth, and a main lead synth. id also like to incorporate my guitar, i dont know if that helps give you an idea of what im looking for.

i know i could obviously look through myself, and i have, but i feel like half the problem is that the instruments require a lot of custom tweaking to get the right sound for each project and i really just dont know enough about the effects/parameters yet. and i know a lot of you guys could probably tell me right away which instrument with a basic idea of how to customize it would give me the sound im looking for.

thanks in advance

spacedoutbad wrote: im looking for a overall sound similar to the postal service, that laid back slowed down soft synth (im not even sure what genera that would really be) and am trying to have my sets contain a beat track, a background chord style synth, a background/bass line synth, and a main lead synth. id also like to incorporate my guitar, i dont know if that helps give you an idea of what im looking for.

i know i could obviously look through myself, and i have, but i feel like half the problem is that the instruments require a lot of custom tweaking to get the right sound for each project and i really just dont know enough about the effects/parameters yet. and i know a lot of you guys could probably tell me right away which instrument with a basic idea of how to customize it would give me the sound im looking for.

you ve asked a pretty broad question there

i know when i starting using abe i was overwhelmed by endless parameters and devices, i would start with a sound and end tweaking things too much and often losing what started out as a nice sound

but it seems that you have an idea of some of your content - i think a good thing to do is to just start - you ll knowledge of what is in the live library and how to tweak things to your taste will come in time

one way is ...


- put a track into the arrangement view and mark where the most noticeable changes in the song are - breaks etc

- listen to the contents of the track and see what you want to replicate or what sound you want to get close to

- if it is a synth just go to the browser and drag anything in - i suggest do this in the session view and drag into the arrangement view later, start somewhere is the key- flick through a few options until you have something close to what you like - i mean you can always replace it later if it does nt sit with the rest of the song as it develops

- keep doing that in various tracks with the other sounds -

- arrange the various clips, samples so that match or come close the structure of the song that you dragged in and then have fun with tweaking parameters - i dont mean to always match your clips/samples to the structure of other songs ... its just a place to get started


i mean, this is just a quick suggestion - other people here will have other ways of starting - i used to sit for ages with one sample trying to get the sound that i liked and id never end making anything - my friend got me into one way of working which is to just find a rhythm, or a sound. or some clips/samples that sounds ok (but obviously will need working on) and then get the basic framework for the song into the arrangement

at least then you have something to build on and will hear the song coming along over a period of time instead of hearing nothing but one sample being tweaked (which may have to be tweaked more anyways when you need it sit with other sounds in the song that you re making )


also - google "how to sound like ...." - that might bring up some tips - computer music magazine usually runs and article which is entitled "how to sound like ..." they have a website called http://www.musicradar.com/

hope this helps

i used to sit for ages with one sample trying to get the sound that i liked and id never end making anything

thats exactly what ive been doing.

i know itll come with time, ive got a couple good books on live and how synthesizers work/how to use them, so ive already been progressing. im just not up to the point where i can build something from scratch and know what im doing enough to make something i like. and of course i cant help but still play around with everything in the mean time. so im really just looking for a basic instrument in the style im looking for that i can mess around with until i can actually build one to use thats exactly how i like.

its just hard for me to make something when the instruments i have access to dont sound like the sounds in my head. or if i spend so much time looking for the right one that i loose the whole thing all together.

arrangement first. sound second.

and show restraint from every angle you can imagine.

you can get away with a lot, with only a little. (sound/fx/etc)

as it develops, listen to your track, pinpoint any problems, and try your best to solve them using the rules above

Try to separate some time for creating sounds - finding your favorite drum kits and synths. I wish Ableton had some kind of favorite or tagging system for that.

Set up a few different sessions with different sounds and get lost in exploring presets and creating your own macro knob mappings. Make sure to use the hot-swapping feature for presets - up and down arrows and the enter key are nice as well for switching presets.

"arrangement first. sound second."

This takes a large amount of vision that only comes from experience - but it's a lofty goal to aim for

"I'm looking for a overall sound similar to the postal service"

He uses mostly electronic beats which are heavily edited in a tasteful manner - so you'd probably want to mix your drum beats down and do some slicing - or you could use the beat repeater or supatrigger to get some approximations. Any of the electronic kits from the Live suite should get you going in the right direction.

I remember a string sound run through a filter, with lots of the highs rolled off and the cutoff changing.

Check out the Analog synth in Live. Try running an arpeggiator before it.

Maybe you can find some interviews with the production guy - his solo project is called Dntel...which you probably know.