Ableton Forum

Hello everyone, something Ive always wondered about ableton is... how do you record build ups and changes on the presets?, how do you record the manipulation of a preset?

First of all, it depends greatly on of you are using Arrangement View or Session View. Then there is a long list of can and can't dos for each

your wording is a tad cornfusing (for me)...are you talking saving/recording automation, or how to save changes youve made to a preset? or both

Im not talking about saving settings of the presets, but to record a changing preset... like recording a preset getting more and more distorted.

Id like to know how to do this either on session or arrangement... is there any documents/vids about this?

cachapa wrote:Im not talking about saving settings of the presets, but to record a changing preset... like recording a preset getting more and more distorted.

Id like to know how to do this either on session or arrangement... is there any documents/vids about this?

this is called automation. there are many ways to do this.. google "ableton automation" I'm sure there will be tons of youtube videos on it.

Automation in Live is very clever but can be confusing. Here's the best way I've found to think of it.

There are two kinds of automation: in the arrangement view and in clips. Arrangement automation sets the absolute position of parameters over time. Clip automation lets you adjust those parameters to be a percentage of that.

You can click the record button and record your parameter changes as arrangement automation but not as clip automation (but a lot of people wish you could).

And then there are midi cc automations :/

for doing what you are talking about, a simple automation , if you want to do it in session you can just record the track to another track, making the changes to the sound as it records (post fx)...then of course there is no going back...i usually do a few takes when i do it this way, just to be sure i got it...then chop out the good part

not 'on the fly ' like the techniques above, but very quick and useful for what you are trying to get, is to draw the automation in clip view, as an envelope...not spontaneous the same way, but you have very precise control....

A little tip. When drawing in these automations in Arrangement View, select (tap on) the parameter you plan to adjust, be it a knob, fader, button. Often times in the Arrangement, that parameter will be selected for automation.

If anything turns a dull dark red, hit the 'back to arrangement' button up top. It turns red.

Thanks for your replies guys... I'll have to look deeper into this automation thing and ableton in general to get it cause... to be honest, I didnt understand half the things you said, but its aprecciated anyways

Damn, I wish I had more time.

Hit the record button on the top. Play things and mess around with dials and buttons while it is going. Hit stop. When you play it back, everything will magically move on its own . If you want, you can even record again, and change even more things while the other ones are already moving!

Great!, it was so simple all this time... thanks man