Ableton Forum

Whenever I put drum kit into a channel.. and program a beat or whatever, it is really quiet compared to everything else, even if volume on full whack!... the kick I can hardly hear a lot of the time. Why why why!

Ever thought of turning the rest down?

it's the neighbors. your drums are trying to keep you out of trouble. it would be best to take this gesture of goodwill and run with it.

H20nly wrote:it's the neighbors. your drums are trying to keep you out of trouble. it would be best to take this gesture of goodwill and run with it.

this.

check your I/O and send/return settings to make sure you're sending the audio where you want and not off to a dead end. if everything checks out there, then I 'spose it's time to drop some gain on that sonuvabitch.

use bigger sticks

Utility audio effect is your friend


just turn the gain knob up.

how do you play your drumkit?
do you use some pad controller? it could be set to a low value, thus making the drum sound very low maybe.
or does it happen even if you draw a beat directly into Live?

does it happen even in an empty set with only the drumkit in it?

As well as turning other tracks down, you can also use subtractive EQ on other tracks that may share the same frequencies as your beats. (Use a spectrogram to check the frequencies) May also help to split your drums to their own tracks so you can treat each type (kick, snare, hats) individually with eq etc...

In fact this topic is vast, there are so many ways to create separation for your component parts, mostly by allowing only the important frequencies of each particular track to shine through whilst suppressing other frequencies that are not needed.

ie: If you cut the sub bass from you kick you can help a bass line to poke thru.

Take the bottom end off of hats, other high frequncies high frequencies etc.. to allow kick/bass to get a look in.

Again, the last thing you want to be doing is turning stuff up.

NB: Be carefull not to go too far with subtractive EQ as you loose dynamics, less is more///


Oh, and layering's good: think of three kicks for example - one low end, one mid, one high bass - each sculpted with its own eq so that only the important frequency is heard.

Snares and can also be treated the same way with often a clap used for the high end. Phatten up further by turning quantize off and move some of the hits way from the beat - experiment maybe with track delay to achieve the same results. I've also split snare tracks in the past to a dedicated left/right track, setting one to delay by a few milliseconds for some really wide, in your face snares.

What's the velocity value in your rack? Put it up...

+1 for turning everything else down, and turning your monitors up. Headroom FTW

Seriously - is live shipping with a new install option these day - 'uninstall brain'?

Khazul wrote:Seriously - is live shipping with a new install option these day - 'uninstall brain'?

I know what you mean...most of the tips we offer are basic studio/audio practises that have been true for many years...

I couldnt afford shit all back then in Thatchers Britain but I had an idea of what I'd do if I had more than the 4 track cassette recorder and a very few fx etc...!!

These days, everythings a quick fix...new punters jump straight on with no musical legacy expecting it all to fall into place.

S'all good though, gives me something to do other than work and stumbleupon.

Guff Tong wrote:new punters jump straight on with no musical legacy expecting it all to fall into place.

Et Voila. Non-musicians wondering why they can't make music.

I often wonder why I am unable to win the Masters golf tournament despite owning some golf clubs...good ones too.

The Leveller wrote: I often wonder why I am unable to win the Masters golf tournament despite owning some golf clubs...good ones too.

Can I put this on a tshirt?