The Ableton Q&A Thread

[hurlingdervish]

@nowaysj



You need midiox/yoke whatever its called.

[dickman69]

OK CHECK THIS OUT

i have a midi controller that i use with impulse to program drums
but the midi controller is velocity sensitive
i dislike this b/c i like to go in and edit the velocity of each drum

is there a way i can set up so that i cancel out the velocity sensitivity and each hit is just at 100?

thank u so much

[nowaysj]

@nowaysj

WTF is this?!

I was wondering what happened to you man! I imagined that you got so serious about working on an album that you had a mental breakdown for which you were hospitalized, resulting in your 2 year long absence?

Hope that is not true. How have you been? Any new toons up?

-=-=-=-=-

Re this issue... thanks for the response, and yeah, it seems like a loopback driver is necessary. I'm really not psyched about that. I tried using midiox/yoke years ago to do some foolish thing (noticing a pattern?), and it didn't work at all, spent a long time chasing my tail, and I think it fishied up my system's handling of midi at the time.

I think working with maschine as a controller is what is going to work for me to do most of what I want to do. It is extremely configurable as a controller. I'd used it before as a basic drum pad controller, but the thing is actually quite deep, allows deep configuration, way above what that whack ass akai stuff can do. I was on the edge of selling maschine, but I might keep it just for the controller capabilities.

Thanks again for the response, and I'd really like to hear some new tracks...

[Disco Nutter]

OK CHECK THIS OUT

i have a midi controller that i use with impulse to program drums
but the midi controller is velocity sensitive
i dislike this b/c i like to go in and edit the velocity of each drum

is there a way i can set up so that i cancel out the velocity sensitivity and each hit is just at 100?

thank u so much

What plugin are you using for the drums? If you're using Sampler, just set the velocity to 0%.

[nowaysj]

What controller. Unless you know how to do scripting, you'll probably have to select all the notes, drag all their velocities down to 0, then back up to 100 for the tweaking.

But maybe live is capable of some type of midi filtration to remove the velocity information.

The controller may be able to do it, through it's editor.

Also, don't know if live has this but in fl there are mapping curves that you can set that will adjust incoming velocities. One technique I used to make the mpk suck ass pads more sensitive. Don't know if live has (it should) this ability.

Anyone into max for live? I'm still undecided about live in general, but a lot of the roadblocks I encounter seem like m4l could handle what I want to do. But really, a whole nother purches, a whole nother bag of wors to learn and figure out... If I am going to be pushing performance, seems like maybe I'll only be satisfied with the added functionality. The midi mapping in live is quick and easy and really really shallow. As I've gotten into it, I'm totally surprised by that.

I'm so burned out homies on dealing with music technology. I want to get back to just making and playing music. Tomorrow is a new day, got a padkontorl to the left of me, apc40 in front of me, and maschine to the right of me. pad kontrol for triggering sounds and phrases, apc40 for launching as well as fx tweaking with macro knobs, and then maschine for a lot else, pad fx triggers. These are really important because this is where I move the song, these are the corners of transitions, where new sections of the song emerge. My desk has been lost to stacks of unpaid bills, cable, strange notes from my family. I could work through that layer of noise, but now my desk is clean and focused ready to go. My desk is wearing the production nerd gear equivalent of some sluted up victoria secret undergarments. Stuff you wear when you know you are going to be fucked.

YYeeaahh yeah, can't wait for tomorrow morning!

[Disco Nutter]

Also, I think a lot of midi controllers have velocity curves that you can set. Flick through the manual!

[Perej]

This is pissing me off a treat now. Constant little problems popping up. The velocity of my snares in a vengance drum rack are all set to 100%, they have all been parallel compressed and I haven't even turned them down on the fader to -6db and yet they are so quiet under my other drums I can barely hear them. All the other drums have been set in the exact same way - 100% vel - Parallell compression....

There's no reason for all this shit.. really irritating as I was quite enjoying using Ableton and would prefer to use it over FL but what's the point with all this?
How can I tell what's wrong? Could it be my PC? grr

[nowaysj]

One or both of two things: the crack u r using or operator error.

Try some u tube tutorials.

Will say that the quality of my mixes has changed by about 1% between fl and live. It is the same shit.

[symmetricalsounds]

turning velocity to 100% just makes the slider under the midi notes more sensitive, it doesn't make the drum sample louder.

[Disco Nutter]

turning velocity to 100% just makes the slider under the midi notes more sensitive, it doesn't make the drum sample louder.

Sampler's default output is -12db, have you turned it up?

[dickman69]

no its a real simple laptop midi controller so i dont think u can set the velocity... ill check the manual tho

[nowaysj]

Yo, check in the Midi Effects of Live's Devices, 99% u can change the way velocity hits your devices. Cha ching, bro. Oh, and liked your beat over the hip hop thread.

[dickman69]

thank u thank u thank u

oh & thank u

[Smiles]

Can someone tell me how to change the stereo width in ableton? I'v searched and some people say to use the utility but others say that doesn't work. Or does anyone prefer a vst for this? Thanks!

[Disco Nutter]

If I want to lessen the stereo, I'd reach for Utility. For widening, maybe Bootsy Rescue or Voxengo Stereo Touch on individual sounds.

[Smiles]

Ok so i got all the pieces to my track together. But I am still confused on mixing/mastering. What can i do by myself in ableton to get it sounding good enough so i can be satisfied that its done. Do I lower the volume on certain tracks and mess with the utility utility, compressor, and eq? Being really specific would be great, thanks!

[Attila]

Can someone tell me how to change the stereo width in ableton? I'v searched and some people say to use the utility but others say that doesn't work. Or does anyone prefer a vst for this? Thanks!

If there isn't already stereo width to mess around with with a utility, just throw a filter delay on there first with a quick time difference to spread it out. As for your question about mixing...that's what people spend decades learning. If it could be boiled down to a paragraph we'd all be superstars and this forum would be useless. Just find details that you don't like in the mix and fix them as well as you can with eq and all that good stuff. I'd advise not to touch anything you don't have a basic understanding of though.

[symmetricalsounds]

Ok so i got all the pieces to my track together. But I am still confused on mixing/mastering. What can i do by myself in ableton to get it sounding good enough so i can be satisfied that its done. Do I lower the volume on certain tracks and mess with the utility utility, compressor, and eq? Being really specific would be great, thanks!

checkout the moneyshot thread, learning mixing/mastering is all about the tools you're using and how you use them rather than what DAW you're using them on.

[Perej]

2 questions

First off, what are the best settings to export at? I find that whenever I finish something in Ableton it NEVER comes out the way it sounded in the DAW, which pisses me off. It's not like that with Cubase or FL for example.

Secondly, when automating something, sometimes I can't even see where the hell the automation line is. Anyone else get this? I've got a sample from Radiohead open in sampler, and when I go to transpose it through automation I can't even see a pink line to show me where it begins, so I click somewhere and suddenly it's transposed up to +47 or something. I can post a screenie.

[Disco Nutter]

Are you clipping the master when exporting? I generally export at 24bit, 48khz, with no dithering.

Regarding the second question: yeah, sometimes Live shows a different "region" on the automation lane, just enlarge it a bit.