The world of controllers has evolved quite rapidly since I started using computers for music back in 2009. The choices are almost endless, and you can get your hands on almost any configuration of knobs, buttons, sliders, and even touch screens. Along with these controllers, integration options have evolved right along side. There are complex marriages between hardware and software, such as Push and Live, or the Maschine Line of products. How do you resist the urge to continually update and reshape your collection of controllers? You learn how to control them. The ability to define the interaction between hardware and software is more easily done than ever before, and doesn’t require any advanced programming (although it definitely can go that route).

This series of articles will go through some of the basics of communicating with a MIDI controller (in this case the QuNeo from KMI), observing properties of Live via Max 4 Live (M4L from here on out) and the Live API, and controlling aspects of the Live set from within a M4L patch/device. We will use a pair of devices that I recently made as an example, which you can download HERE. Read more »

In the previous articles we discussed how to setup effects racks using parallel chains to process incoming audio in different ways. Hopefully those discussions proved useful and were able to help you generate some new ideas, but we can take it a step further. What if wanted to process different parts of the audio differently? Different frequencies, different channels, or different parts of the stereo spectrum are all easily available to us within Live using the flexibility of racks, and a handful of native Live devices.

Splitting audio into smaller parts like this can be a powerful tool for both sound design and creation, as well as mixing and polishing audio. I often find myself wanting to treat the low end of a sound much differently than the high end, and splitting the audio will facilitate these types of tasks. Read more »

In the previous article we discussed using effect racks and native Live devices to build a complex and flexible parallel audio signal processor. Effect Racks are a fantastic way to build devices like this, but they also excel at creating a variety of effects that can be used in real time. When creating effects for real time performance, it’s valuable to know how you will be interacting with the sound from your controller. Do you have knobs and faders? Just buttons? X/Y controls? Depending on how you are interacting with your controller can have a great impact on how you design the racks macros, and other relationships.

I’ve been using a Max 4 Live device that I built to perform with for years. It turns the 8×8 grid of the launchpad into 8 virtual sliders. You hit a button and the value jumps to that position with a defined interpolation time. The racks that I built to be manipulated with this have some design choices that take that into consideration. The ability to instantly go to a data point is something that I kept in mind when designing these racks. That characteristic is also present on the QuNeo’s X/Y and pressure data on the pads (They can jump back to 0 on release), and the location of the sliders. This makes the QuNeo a good choice to take advantage of these racks. When designing racks for real time manipulation it’s important to think about how you will be manipulating them. Read more »

Let’s talk about Effect Racks in Ableton Live. If you’re a seasoned user, I’m sure that you know about racks, and if you are a relative rookie, you should get to know them, and know them WELL. Arguably one of Live’s most powerful tools for both setting up creative effects and crafting useful utilities that can be used time and time again.

In this first installment we will examine recreating a complex effect by building it from smaller pieces. These pieces will be native Live devices, and one Max 4 Live device. Max 4 Live is now included in Live 9, so if you’re up to date you should have access to all the devices we will be using. I use a Mac for my computer music, so key commands will be referenced using Mac lingo. I will try to also include the Windows equivalent when I can, but don’t hate me if I forget.
Read more »