Ableton Forum

Hey,

I was wondering, have any of you used Ableton's Live to record music (voice), etc.. and make your own CD's for the public market? I am amazed at Live 3.0.4's capabilities, and love it. I want to start recording demo cd's, so I can present them to Record Producers. What effects would you suggest using for making Demo's.. such as Reverb, Chorus, etc.?

Thanks,
Rmoat

Live is great for recording sound from outside the computer
but as for your second question..



um how does one begin to answer this question

there are soooo many things to worry about before you start to even begin thinking about what effects to use - like, is your song good? does it need a bass part? should i fire the singer?... etc

those are the first things that a Record Producer will be looking for....

regards

porpy

Just one tip: Learning by doing is the way to go! And harass people to give you hints, watch them work, and search the internet for production tips. Your query covers such a wide field - and you can't generalise in terms of effects, chorus might sound good on guitar but horrible on vocals, and reverb might always be applied to the latter but almost never to bass tracks.... etc.

It's trial and error and listening to your half-finished tracks on as many different sound systems as possible to get a feel for what sounds good on most stereos.

And for a wealth of tips, check out this thread, it's really really good: http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 52e17a32a1

cheers

What about strictly effects for vocals, i've tried chorus.. and like FORMAT said it just sounds horrible with vocals. I wonder if there are any Vocal Enhancer VST Plugins or something. I don't want to change my voice. I wonder what Music Professionals do.

Rmoat

yes, many people have done great traditional multi-track recording with Live for public consumption. I myself have recorded two albums for two bands in Live, works great. Check out harmony-central.com forums, and rec.audio.pro google group for loads of searchable information on recording. Also, consider getting a good book or two about recording, I'll shamefully admit that "home recording for musicians for dummies" has been a helpful resource. As for voice, first compress it (start with settings like: threshold -8 dB, Ratio between 1.5:1 and 2:1, attach around 1 ms,and release around 40 ms--add gain to get the signal to the right level). Then I usually run it through Live's chorus--choose the "chorus" preset then turn the wet knob to about 20%. Then add some reverb to taste, I usually use anywhere for 8-35% for vocals, and Live's verb is good. Finally, when mixing, you'll probably need to eq the vocals to fit the mix, put the eq before the compressor. There's fullness at 150 hz, mudd between 200-250, some clarity can be had at 3 kHz, presence at 5 kHz, some "air" at 10 kHz, and sibilance cna be cut if needed between 7.5 and 10 kHz.

Ryan

Try this site ... There is some good NFO here...

http://www.tweakheadz.com

Hey,

Thanks for all the cool info. By the way, are there any Pitch Correction/Fix VST plugins available for free? I've checked http://www.hitsquad.com but no Pitch Correction VST's. I did try Yamaha's Pitch Fix.. it was cool, until the silly demo features kicked in and turned off my sound every few seconds.

Have a good one,
Rmoat