You can easily organized your VST plug ins into folders in Ableton Live 8. If you have a lot of plug ins then it this makes it much easier than looking at the entire list of plug ins in the browser. Simply go to your User Folder/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST and create folders for all of your plug in categories. Then copy the VST’s from your main VST plug in library, under the main Library folder on your HD drive, into the appropriate folder ( or you could move them I suppose, I prefer to copy/duplicate them in case something gets funny ).
CONTINUE READING Organize VST Plug Ins – Ableton Live 8»
If you have one of these laying around, or can find one cheap, then you have a great Midi Controller for Ableton. I used to use one of these with an MPC to get some cool effects. It didn’t really have any gain control in or out so it could sound great or really terrible depending on the source sound. After things started to really sound good in the box and computers got faster it sat on the shelf for a number of years just blinking and looking like all Christmas like. Now it’s back just acting as Midi Controller for Ableton and it’s unique “Momentary” button is really cool for effects like Beat Repeat, where you might want to just engage quickly and then bypass it quickly. You can also use the blinking Tap Tempo button as your Tap Tempo for Ableton and send the midi clock to it so it’s in sync. Serves it’s purpose better now than originally intended. Cool piece, thought I’d mention.
A really fast way to submix tracks in Ableton Live 8 is by using the Group feature. Simply select the tracks you want in the submix and hit Command (Apple) G. You will now see the tracks have become connected to the main Group track which has the little arrow to the right of it’s name. (See pic below)
CONTINUE READING Submixing Via Groups in Ableton Live 8»
If you are someone who has a lot of sounds and loops, then you need to really get Audiofinder.
It’s true that Pro Tools and Logic have pretty decent browsers built in ( Pro Tools Workspace Browser is especially impressive ) but none of them can even touch the almighty Audiofinder. I will be doing a video tutorial on how to use the various functions in Audiofinder but I just wanted to provide an overview here on it’s most impressive features.
CONTINUE READING Sound Organization = Audiofinder»
After a busy summer of travel and playing some great music I’m back home in Brooklyn. I’ve been geeking out like crazy with Logic Studio 9 and think it’s incredible. I will be releasing several tutorials very soon. Several groups I play with have been utilizing Main Stage and I’ll be posting a few articles, tutorials on that as well. Bottom line is that the program still feels like Logic 8 but added the features it truly needed under the hood.
A few quick mentions:
Flex Time is ridiculous – equally on par with Pro Tools Elastic Time and Ableton Elastique. Does real-time Beat Detective style audio quantizing and all the incredible stretching algorithms.
Drum Replacer basically replaces any need for Drumagog. I love the way it incorporates with the Library Browser. I still dig aptrigga for some things though.
Bounce In Place makes rendering effects and midi tracks super fast, saving CPU power and allowing for audio processing on midi instrument generated sounds.
Audio Editing in general is just WAY better with phase locked multitrack editing, Smart Tool style cursor making fades and cuts totally easy. Apple loops are a lot more flexible now and allow for processing if you disable the “Follow Tempo” button in the Inspector. The program is also just a lot faster as far as edits and load times for session data/instruments.
I’ll be posting a lot of new stuff in the next few weeks so stay tuned!
Malcolm
Just a real quick post here but felt I should mention a great AU plug in that acts just like Soundreplacer or Drumagog. It’s called apTrigga, from Apulsoft. It is the easiest plug in to use. Simply insert it on the track and it will see the original sound acting as a trigger for the new sample, simply drag and drop from the Browser Menu and your done! 7 Velocity layers allow for nice expressive tweaking. I love this thing for kick and snare replacement, give it a try and you will too.
So we’ll be talking about getting control over Reason instruments in Pro Tools and how to utilize both Instrument and Midi Tracks in the process. So the first thing to do is set up a stereo Instrument Track and create a multichannel Reason Insert.
CONTINUE READING Rewire Midi in Pro Tools 8 – with Reason 4»
This is a topic that gets everyone pretty heated and I want to open the floor for discussion. This is a subject that sits very close to home for me, spending way too much of my life with both of them. I love each program for different reasons and I’m just going to start by listing what I feel ( and some factual info ) are the pro’s con’s of each.
Pro Tools 8 Pro’s:
Audio Editing
Recording/Mixing
Elastic Audio
Playlists/Comping
ELASTIC AUDIO
Instant Audiosuite processing, no stopping needed
BEAT DETECTIVE
Workspace Browser
Bundled Instruments sound great
Easy Transferability to any studio
CONTINUE READING Logic Pro 8 vs Pro Tools 8»
Logic Pro 9 has a lot of options for tweaking midi and control data and when it comes to Automation there are a few cool features that follow in this tradition. In this article I will discuss 2 features that you may be unaware of and should definitely know about.
REGION BASED AUTOMATION DATA
So when you open your Track Automation view you can adjust the lines to match the corresponding parameter, such as volume/pan/sends/etc… Pretty straightforward, right? Now if we look under the Options menu in Logic we see the Track Automation drop down menu. At the bottom of that menu are some very cool options. The first thing to do is to select a region that has automation data written over it in the track view. Something like this:
CONTINUE READING Advanced Uses of Automation In Logic Pro 9»
