Ableton Forum

Hello again all

What options do you recommend for programming beats in Ableton? In the past I have used Fruityloops as a VST, programmed the beat in there. But it's a really clunky way of doing it.

I would use midi/operator etc but I find it counter intuitive. I have a midi keyboard to bash out stuff, but I really miss the way of putting together beat structures that I used to use in Fruityloops.

I'm making kind of electronica hip-hop weirdness (cf Dabrye, Flying Lotus, Madlib..)

Thanks in advance!

Oh - and can I change the sounds built into the banks in Impulse? Or create my own banks using wavs??

I started out with fruity loops (v4, i think), and really liked the little step sequencer it gave you, then I got reason, and really liked the ReDrum drum sequencer it gave you...

But then moving to Live, yeah it's not quite as intuitive using midi clips to sequence a vst drum machine. To be honest, i've just gotten used to it and it's no longer a major issue. Still, if anyone know's of a VST drum machine that lets you copy/output midi data from a step sequencer (does that make sense?) I'd love to know about it.

Slightly tangentally, making the kind of stuff you do, you'd probably be interested (if you've not got it already) in downloading KTDrumtrigger (I think I spelt that right) - It's a free vst that converts audio to midi hits, great for funky weirdo breaks superfast.

EDIT: on preview, yeah, you can just drag and drop .wavs into impulse to either replace sounds in the presets or to make yer own from fresh

Once you understand fully how Impulse works, you'll see that it can do all of the things that FruityLoops does plus more. You just have to get used to the interface and the procedures you take to arrive at the same results. My suggestion... Make all your FL sound files available in Live's browser window. Then open Impulse and populate the machine with some of your samples. Do this in session view. Then you can add a bunch of tracks and program away with the midi step sequencer. You'll soon see that you can do all the same things. It just takes time to learn the new interfaces. Trust me... I used to be a FL Studio junkie and really go discouraged with Live at first because I just couldn't "do" the same things. But after spending a lot of time with Live, I realized that I could recreate everything I used to be able to do in FL...but now I could do even more. It's just a matter of understanding how Live arranges all its functions. It's like learning a new language at first, I know. Keep at it!

if anyone know's of a VST drum machine that lets you copy/output midi data from a step sequencer (does that make sense?) I'd love to know about it.

Im pretty sure utonics Microtonic allows u to do this
u can make a pattern in its seq and copy to a midi file
then just drag into ableton

yep, microtonic does that.

it also can send midi out to other tracks.


.lm.

jayp wrote:Once you understand fully how Impulse works, you'll see that it can do all of the things that FruityLoops does plus more.

examples?

OK cool - anyone know of any good Impulse tutorials?

www.vtc.com is a computer software training site that has some FANTASTIC Ableton tutorials. For $30 you can watch all the tuturials, or for free, you get the first 3 chapters, which covers quite a bit. I went ahead and dropped the $30. It's bringing me up to speed on everything Ableton in a real hurry.

GURU sends out MIDI as well.

microtonic does have a step sequencer that you can import to MIDI but you are limited to using it's sounds (although I suppose you could apply the generated MIDI track to some other vst) and it only has 16 steps in the sequencer before you have to change patterns.

I just got Guru specifically because of it's 128 step step sequencer and the fact that it can import wavs into it as well so you can use your Battery sounds or whatever. You can also have up to 8 different drum sets with an ungodly amount of patterns in total available. You could write an entire song with nothing but Guru. It's the poo.

mr_goosey wrote:OK cool - anyone know of any good Impulse tutorials?

This guy has a lot of good tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmbYeD43hWs

Also, post a link to some of your music! I love that sort of thing...

Hey man, thanks for that. I will do when I've got something to show. But to give you an idea, check superchronziobros, by SAMIYAM (one of my fav unheard producers)

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... D=12101455

For a very long time I was not a fan of programming drums in live.... Then I decided to sit down and learn how to... I can program drums faster and with more creativity in Live than with anything else.

madlib doesn't use any step sequencers.

just learn to program your beats with your midi controller, it's easy