Ableton Forum

Hello all,

I'm new to Ableton and production in general. I have a very basic question. Right now I'm using solely my PC w/ Ableton Suite and no external MIDI interface.

I'm trying to manipulate a vocal sample, from what I gather this is commonly chopped up & done in Sampler?

I cannot figure out how to actually trigger the sample in Sampler. I can do so in a regular audio track, but Sampler seems to be used for chopping things up for effect layering, an I can't figure out how to actually play the sample with Sampler. There doesn't seem to be a Play button or Keyboard hotkey, and as I said I have no MIDI interface. I've dropped my sample into Sampler and see the waveform just fine... but can't play it.

Thanks for any input as I'm a bit confused

In session view, make a new clip and draw a note in at C3 in the Sampler track. Depending on how long the sample is, you might need to draw the note several measures long. If you draw it in above or below C3 it will change the pitch of the sample.

In session view, each channel strip has a volume slider, next to it are Mute, Solo and Record Arm. When Record Arm is activated, the channel listens for available inputs.

The next step is o make sure that your qwerty is ready to use as a keyboard. On the top of the screen near 'midi' and 'key' is a small keyboard icon. Activate that, and when you press A-L you should see activity happening on the top right of your screen (I'm pretty sure). Z and X go up and down octaves (status is shown briefly at bottom left of screen). C and V change velocity.

Lastly, open the sample tab of Sampler, and choose Key. It should show where your samples are placed and the keyboard will light up when keys are pressed.

If you want to know what is going on, the manual is a fun read. Just skip around to whatever doesn't make sense, to get it resolved :)