19 Tips Learned at Ableton Loop 2018 Day 2 – Music / Software / Instruments

Ableton Live Loop 2018 Day 2

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Saturday Morning

Photay’s Track Deconstruction

I was a little late to the Montalbán Theatre on day two of the Ableton 2018 Loop conference.  I went to Photay’s track deconstruction where he was interviewed by Dani Deahl about his unreleased songs.  The song he chose to deconstruct started with a sample of some of his friends and him singing in a very reverberated tunnel area downtown.  It sounded cool.  As he started to talk about that track.  He mentioned he liked to use Kemper Profiler Rack for drums.  He also used some Soundtoys plugins.  I don’t remember exactly what Soundtoys plugins he used but a lot of people I know love to use Echoboy and Decapitator.   He only had a 3 return tracks, which someone in the audience was amazed because of how lush the track was.

One trick Photay did that I would like to try is he would take one of his samples.  He would copy it and transpose the copy up and pan it right while keeping the original sample or clip panned to the left and in the original key.  This makes for some cool separation effects when working with vocals or strings.

Another interesting thing Photay did was grab parts from old unfinished songs and add them to his track to create ideas and shape the tracks.  For example, he used a sample he made of some strings previous years before.  I noticed his samples sounded really good.  He mentioned using a field recorder for the vocals they sampled in the tunnel.  He was asked a lot of questions and stated the he liked to use other people to master his songs.   This was a great track deconstruction and I learned a lot of things that I would like to try on my next song.

 

19 Tips Learned at Ableton Loop 2018 Day 2 – Music - Software - Instruments-Photay Dani Deahl

 

Tips I Learned

  • Do some field recording to use real samples in songs to give them a lush sound
  • Photay uses Soundtoys plugins
  • Photay copied a track and pitch shifted it up for harmony then hard panned the unison and pitched shift track for a cool effect
  • Drag in samples from old unreleased songs to inspire your new track

 

Start Here: Multiple people built a 90 second song off the same sample

After Photay’s track deconstruction, I ended up going to the sample start here session. This was also in the Montalbán Theatre.  There were 3 artists up there that took the sample (from the Ableton sample challenge last night) and created their own 90 second song.

The first was Ebonie Smith. who used Logic to create her song (I found out later, that Ableton was very open to other DAWs at this conference, Loop put on to bring together people, music, and tech.)  She did some cool interesting things with their sample.  She mentioned using Serato Sampler.  It had a cool feature where you could trigger the samples with cue points, or you could instantly change them to play with a full range keyboard.

A couple cool thing that Andrew Huang did with his “start here” song.  He would pitch shift or transpose in Ableton’s clip view the beginning of certain samples to give them some umff.  For example, he would pitch a sweep down the beginning of a kick drum sample to give it a quick drop into the sound itself.   Sometimes he would draw in a pitch ramp going up on other sounds in the beginning of them. I thought this is really a neat technique and something I would like to do more of in the future.

 

Tips I Learned

  • Try out Serato Sampler easy way to perform with samples
  • Pitch dive in an Ableton clip using the clip’s transpose function especially on kicks to get a nice drop effect
  • Pitch raise the beggining in a Ableton clip  using the clip’s transpose function to add expression to a new sound

 

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Saturday Afternoon

After the start here session, I walked over to East West studios to get in line for the Cycling ’74’s Max presentation on MC.  It was put on by Cycling ’74’s CEO and founder David Zicarelli and Content Specialist Tom Hall.  While I was in line for the Max session, I met somebody who does prototypes for Novation Keyboards.   He told me how they use Max to help make prototypes for Novation.  We chatted for a long time about Max, Playing in Bands and Ableton.  He was very interesting guy.  I told how I wanted to do everything in the box for performance so that all my automation and patches are synced and ready.   He said that those USB-C or Thunderbolt audio interfaces are super-fast giving only a 3-millisecond delay.  Hardly noticeable and great for performance.  He mentioned Focusrite Claretts audio interfaces.  Focusrite and Novation are of the same company.

When I finished my album “Valley of Sapphire“, it was easy to play live because it was all made it in Ableton.  I can perform it with my guitar and MIDI controller easily because all of the automation is already in the Ableton project  I would like to start doing this for my other songs like Unseen, and Modern Life.

 

19 Tips Learned at Ableton Loop 2018 Day 2 – Music - Software - Instruments-EastWest Studios Lobby Table

 

Max 8’s MC: working with hundreds more audio channels than speakers

Max’s MC demonstration was very interesting.  David Zicarelli and Tom Hall opened several Max patches to demonstrate the power of MC.   It is a new feature in Max 8.  It allows you to route 100 audio channels through one Patch cord and you can process 100 audio channels at once.  This opens a whole new world in Max making very complex routing easy to do and process.

They had quite a lot of patches that they played for us with samples going through a whole bunch of different phasing and delays to create some unique textures unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.  Imagine processing a hundred audio channels through one patch cord. . . All the effects you could do.   This is what max Max’s MC is incredible.  You can check it out here: Max MC.

 

19 Tips Learned at Ableton Loop 2018 Day 2 – Music - Software - Instruments-Max 8 MC David Zicarelli & Tom Hall

 

Paper Instruments with Kate Stone

After the Max for live presentation I decided to run back over to the Ivor Theater to see how the making of paper instruments was going with Kate Stone. There are pretty much wrapping up.  They made a big sculpture out of paper.  Setting it up via Bluetooth with Ableton.  Kate has an incredible company called Novalia.  She makes unique paper instruments like notebooks with keyboards in them and others.  I highly recommend checking out her website.

 

19 Tips Learned at Ableton Loop 2018 Day 2 – Music - Software - Instruments-Paper Instruments with Kate Stone

 

Tips I Learned

  • USB-C / Thunderbolt interfaces have very low latency and can be used for live vocals (check out the Focusrite Clarett 2Pre USB-C Audio Interface)
  • Max 8 has MC which can route hundreds of audio cables in one patch creating new sonic possibilities
  • Kate Stone creates incredible paper instruments to use with Ableton using Bluetooth

 

Zypher and Sam

While I was at the Ivor Theater, I met Miles AKA Zypher.  A real smart guy, we were talking about all kinds of interesting things.  He mentioned modeling amps with a Kemper Profiling Amp.  I have seen these KPA presets online but haven’t researched them.   I guess a lot of people were taking these Kemper Profiler into guitar shops and modeling the amps they liked then left, hence a lot of music stores don’t allow Kempler amps in there.  They sound that good.

Christopher Kemper (whom designed the amps) is also the founder for the Access Virus line of synths.  At one point I had an Access Virus Ti2 Desktop that I liked.

I was talking to Miles about a Max Patch I was making for performing.  He mentioned Isotonik’s Clyphx.  Clyphx allows one to use scripts in clip mode to control so many aspects of Ableton Live.  A lot of people mentioned Clyphx at Loop this year.  He introduced me to Sam an Ableton certifies trainer from Vancouver.

Miles mentioned another set of plug-ins he liked called Melda Plugins. I mentioned how I wish we could pop out the view of the native Ableton plug ins and always keep them un top so when we switch tracks, they were viewable.  This would be particularly helpful with the looper.   He told me about an external looper for Ableton called the Datalooper that uses the internal Ableton looper but can be controlled and viewed with its external looper.  One of the things I’ve had a problem was being able to see loopers when your inside tracks. But somebody made an external tell looper where you can see it and control it on the floor.

 

Tips I Learned

  • The Kemper Profiler Rack Rackmount Guitar Amplifier can profile guitar amps making it easy to recreate and download some of your favorite amps sounds
  • Isotonix’s Clyphx allows one to use scripts in Ableton Lives clip mode to control many aspects of Ableton Live (A lot of people talking about this)
  • Melda makes some very good sounding plug ins worth checking out

 

I was talking with Zypher and he introduced me to Sam, who is an Ableton certified trainer from Vancouver.

Sam Ableton Certified Trainer

We chatted for a while walking back to the Montalbán Theatre.   Sam told me about the whole educational side of Ableton.   I realized that there was no marketing at loop.  For example, Ableton wasn’t selling t-shirts and hats.  Sam told me Ableton Loop was more about building a community than anything else.

Ableton Loop was About Bringing People Together

Sam mentioned checking out the video Strength in Numbers.  As I watched it, I realized more of the mission statement of Ableton.  I thought back about other things I noticed at the conference.  People were using Logic and Cubase in a lot of demonstrations.  Also, a lot of lectures were about different platforms.    The Loop Conference wasn’t just about Ableton.  Loop was about music technology and community.   It really struck chord with me.

Sam and I talked more about community and stuff like that.  Sam’s whole community was formed over time with working in music.  His best friends and community were whole network of musicians? Sam was a very smart guy knew a lot about Ableton and Max.  He knows Ableton in and out like nothing else. He was very smart.  We talked about Max, and he mentioned how now “Clip End” is in the Max Ableton’s LOM (Live Object Model).   Not being able to trigger off clip end was a hassle when I was making my last Max patch.   But now, it seems as things have changed.

 

Ableton Link

I haven’t used Ableton’s Link very much and I was curious of using Ad Hoc Network for live performance.  Miles and Sam mentioned that it works great and is easy to set up an Ad Hoc and use it.  Miles stated that when playing live its best to use a network cable for Ableton’s Link, or password protect your Wi-Fi connection, ha-ha.

I asked Sam and Miles if they tried out Zen Audio’s ALK2.   Its a new Looping DAW.  None of us have tried it out, but I have been curious.  You can set in the DAW its looping points in an arrangement view.  It will automatically loop for however long you set different tracks at certain times.  You can also add VSTs and mix.  Pretty cool.

 

Saturday Evening

Sam and I made it back to the Montalbán Theatre.  Lafawndah was performing on the main stage.   She had a cool ruffled white dress with a percussionist on a raised stage behind her.  She sang beautiful melodies.  Her music was well produced with a lot of effects and delays.  It was an incredible performance.  I was wondering how they’re playing the backing tracks.  It looks like the drummer was triggering them, but I couldn’t tell for sure?  There was an effect rack behind the drummer.  They did so much with so little, it was very entertaining. It was an incredible performance.

 

19 Tips Learned at Ableton Loop 2018 Day 2 – Music - Software - Instruments-Lafawndah

 

While walking around in the Montalbán Theatre, I met a couple more people at the end. I met Richard Hiag who does vocal production.   He was going to come to Las Vegas to do sound for an event and talked to me about recording vocals.  He mentioned that singers who are good don’t need a lot of effects.  They’re easier record because they’re good.  I thought that was interesting. You can check out his music here: Richard Haig.   He’s got some really cool stuff.

I met another person named Paul Cabot is from the same area of California that I am from. We talked a little bit about video production and music.  You can check out his website here: Paul Cabot.

 

California Fires

I decided to walk to the hotel which was about 20-minute walk from the Montalbán Theatre . It was smoky outside from the California fires.   I guess there was a fire about 20 miles away.  Ableton was giving out masks for us to walk around with.   It wasn’t unbearable, but It was a dark kind of red sky and the masks helped with the smoke.

 

 

19 Tips I Learned Ableton Loop 2018 Day 2

  1. Do some field recording to use real samples in songs to give them a lush sound
  2. Photay uses Soundtoys plugins
  3. Photay copied a track and pitch shifted it up for harmony then hard panned the unison and pitched shift track for a cool effect
  4. Drag in samples from old unreleased songs to inspire your new track
  5. Try out Serato Sampler easy way to perform with samples
  6. Pitch dive in an Ableton clip using the clip’s transpose function especially on kicks to get a nice drop effect
  7. Pitch raise the beggining in a Ableton clip  using the clip’s transpose function to add expression to a new sound
  8. USB-C / Thunderbolt interfaces have very low latency and can be used for live vocals (check out the Focusrite Clarett 2Pre USB-C Audio Interface)
  9. Max 8 has MC which can route hundreds of audio cables in one patch creating new sonic possibilities
  10. Kate Stone creates incredible paper instruments to use with Ableton using Bluetooth
  11. The Kemper Profiler Rack Rackmount Guitar Amplifier can profile guitar amps making it easy to recreate and download some of your favorite amps sounds
  12. Isotonix’s Clyphx allows one to use scripts in Ableton Lives clip mode to control many aspects of Ableton Live (A lot of people talking about this)
  13. Melda makes some very good sounding plug ins worth checking out
  14. The Ableton Loop conference was more about technology and networking hence there was no marketing
  15. Ableton’s core is about bringing people together, check out this video Strength in Numbers
  16. Clip end is now implemented into the Max LOM which can be used trigger actions in Max
  17. Link is great for live performance sync but be sure to use a password for your ad hoc or network cable
  18. Zen Audio’s ALK2 software is a new innovative way to loop with computers using predetermined loop times in an arrangement timeline mode
  19. Vocal production Professional says that not a lot of effects are needed on professional singers because they are just so good sounding on their own

 

Tools

 

People / Music

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