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Ableton Live - controlling plug ins


Guest Gladstone

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Guest Gladstone

I'm just getting into using Ableton at the moment - I've sussed it for DJ purposes, but am hoping to record etc using it. Found some cool samples etc in the plug ins - but I can only work out how to control it using my mouse, which isn't much use - I really need to be able to plug my keyboard in and play the keyboard through the plug in, if you know what I mean.

How do you use a keyboard to control the plug in?

Also - I'm sure I'll work this one out with a bit of dicking about with it, but how do you "record" onto Ableton when playing the keyboard? I.e. if I've got a plug in working and I play the keyboard - how do I actually record what I'm playing? Would be good if I could work this out for recording other instruments straight in to the laptop as well - would save quite a lot of mucking about...

Also - what about going the other way? I.e. can you use the Ableton plug-ins/samples and go from the laptop into the 8 track and record it as a track on there?

And (final question...) - what would be best to use for recording a backing track that could be used for playing live so any samples can be used at gigs as well?

(As you can tell - I am a complete and utter novice at this sort of thing...)

Cheers :up:

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How do you use a keyboard to control the plug in?

:

If you're talking about a controller 'piano keyboard': CTRL + M brings up a mode whereby you can assign different functions to the faders / knobs / wheels / keys on your keyboard. Once in this mode (you'll know because everything that is alterable goes blue) you just click on whichever function of your soft synth it is that you wish to control externally then move whichever knob on your keyboard it is you wish to control that function.

However, if what you actually mean is, the computer keyboard: and you just want to play notes with that, then you need to click the 'arm' button for whichever track you're using. It has a circle on it, goes red when you press it and is right beside the solo and mute buttons, of which every track you create has. You should then be able to use the middle line of keys on your keyboard (A to L) to play notes on your synth or sampler. Z and X change the octave.

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can you use the Ableton plug-ins/samples and go from the laptop into the 8 track and record it as a track on there?

Stick the output from your soundcard into the 8 track.

how do you "record" onto Ableton when playing the keyboard?

Arm the track as above, then press record - play. You may wish to turn the metronome on too (top left-ish)

Let me know if I've misunderstood the questions.

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Guest Gladstone

Thanks dude - I'm sure once I'm looking at Ableton on my laptop at home later on, that will all become clear - seems pretty straightforward.

By "keyboard" I was meaning a bog standard 64 key yamaha keyboard - does that work? The one idea that I have for one of our songs only requires 3 keys, so I can easy get by on the computer keyboard!!

Cheers :up:

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The Yamaha may have a MIDI port which can be connected to your soundcard's equivalent port. You may need to ficker around in Ableton's 'preferences - MIDI settings', and make sure the computer recognises the keyboard. MIDI ports look like this:

midiPort154x134.gif

If not, the best option is to pick up a cheap USB controller keyboard, which would be much less hassle in many respects. For example, syncing something like an arpeggiator with a USB keyboard is much easier than with the aforementioned MIDI port method of older keyboards. I couldn't tell you why that's the case but I've a memory of buggering around for ages with MIDI cables and still having the keyboard running out-of-sync with Ableton's internal time.

USB controllers:

usb controller keyboard - Google Product Search

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Guest Gladstone
My personal studio control deity is a Novation Nocturn 25, but anything with Automap software WILL be ace http://uk.novationmusic.com/ They also do a specific Ableton controller, but a Nocturn/Remote will cover any recent DAW you can throw at it.

I got a Novation Nocturn thingy last month for my birthday - I have no fucking idea how to work it. I've managed to get it working for DJ purposes - i.e. I can fade one audio track out and the other one in at the same time, which makes me feel like a hero, but that's as far as I've got...

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Guest Gladstone
Theres a setup guide for each DAW, follow it, and you'll be able to use the Nocturn to tweak filters, delays etc in real time, and/or recording the automation, it'll definitely do cool things with Ableton, it is truly ace.

Cheers - I've just not had the proper time to sit down and work shit out yet!

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Guest Gladstone

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Cheers - I've just not had the proper time to sit down and work shit out yet!

Beware. Once you get started with Ableton you may not sleep for a few days :p

I nipped in at half time in the footy to see if I could quickly work it out - then missed most of the second half... Was just dicking about with one sample ...

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