Ableton’s Robert Henke (Monolake) discusses Max For Live and his history with Max.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Henke is one of the original architects of Ableton Live and now acts as part of the specification team, determining the direction for the future of Live.

via cycling74com

Steven Ness is working on a version of Terry Riley’s minimalist classic In C, using Max For Live and Ableton Live 8.

In C consists of 53 musical phrases, lasting from half a beat to 32 beats that should be played in order, but can be repeated any number of times.

In this video demo, Ness explains how he’s using Max For Live to recreate the logic of In C using the capabilities of Max For Live.

Best quote: “Oh my god! Max For Live Is Going To Blow Your Mind!”

This video demonstrates using Max For Live with a Wacom Tablet to control the Analog synth instrument in Ableton Live 8.

The “Wacom Theremin” offers a lot of expressive musical potential, with 5 degrees of control over the sound.

Details below.

via rerunnermusic:

The live.remote~ object passes data at many times the resolution of MIDI (one of the great things about the Wacom tablet and sample accurate modulation from MSP to Ableton Live using the API objects in Max for Live).

The Wacom tablet has 5 degrees of hi-res expressive freedom (see below for mappings). Very promising, this is just a quick little study… Cheers.

x axis = pitch (tempered)
y axis = volume
pen pressure =vibrato amount
tilt axis y = vibrato rate
tilt axis x = detune +/- semitone.

Michael Una looks at using the $44.95 Highly Liquid MD24 MIDI decoder kit to control a handmade analog bass line sequencer and drum machine via Ableton Live.

This video shows you how to use Ableton Live like an MPC to chop and play your samples so that they can cut each other off.

The video also shows how to setup your own custom drum racks in Ableton so this chop and cut off setting is done automatically when you slice a new sample.

via SoundsAndGear

Sunday Synth Jam: This video demonstrates jamming with the JazzMutant Lemur and Ableton Live.

It starts with a demo jam and then digs into the set up of the Lemur with Live.

via tonvibration:

playing a ableton live set with my current live control surface on the jazzmutant lemur.
(the soundquality is a little poor – sorry – next time i shouldn´t record it directly with the cam…. but it is only for demonstration purpose anyway…)
i talk a little about the controls at the end.

Sunday Synth Jam: This track was done using only the Novation Launchpad and Ableton Live 8. Plugins used were Native Instruments Massive, Discovery DSP and ABL2.

It would have been nice to get an inset of the screen on this.

via SuicideServer:

The idea to this video came after someone asked me here on Youtube if i need all of my machines to make music – so you guys are the judge now Cheers

Matthew Davidson (stretta) put together this demo video for obo – a Max For Live app that turns Ableton Live 8 into a matrix synth, inspired by the addictive-like-crack ToneMatrix synth:

I’ve adapted obo for use in maxforlive, added monome 128/256 support (not required for operation), 16 pattern memory, edit while play, copy/paste patterns and a scale generator (whew).

Check it out and let me know what you think!

Because it was there: Ableton Live 8 does Twitter, with a bit of help from Max for Live, MXJ and Jython.

“I sat and watched fifteen minutes of the Twitter public timeline while recording this video,” says Nick Rothwell, “and have now lost the will to live.”

Maybe if we could just use the Twitter stream to trigger events based on keywords in tweets……

Changes Ableton Live 7.0.18:

• Support for the Novation LaunchPad controller.
• Support for the AKAI MPD-18, MPK-25, MPK-61 and MPK-88 controllers.
• Support for OpenLabs devices.
• Several improvements for the AKAI APC.

Bug fixes since v7.0.16:

• Putting third party plug-in with MIDI out ports on the master track and route the MIDI output of the master track into a MIDI track would crash Live.
• Opening a particular set would crash as soon as the clip detail view of a particular clip would be opened.
• Deleting temp folder would not always work properly.
• Ctrl + Z on modal dialog on a modal dialog could crash Live.
• The display representation of the Axiom Pro’s endless encoders would not update when the knobs itself are turned.
• The state of the tempo nudge up/down would be saved within a Live set by mistake.
• Select on launch would not working when using the APC.
• Locked user remote script would not be locked after re-loading the Live set.
• On Mac OS X, switching on the APC 40 or the Remote SL after Live is already started could still not allow to use the controller until its MIDI port was closed and reopened.
• On Mac OS X 10.6.0, using the Complex warper could crash Live.
• Playing MIDI could crash Live when multi-core support is enabled.
• Switching on track-solo would not work properly in exclusive mode when switching via the APC.
• On Mac OS X 10.6.x, starting Live with a template set that contains audio clips, and with another CoreAudio client running at the same time (e.g. iTunes), would freeze Live. Also, changing sample rates in Live would not work properly.

This video, via synthjunk, is a celebration of all that is good – with an emphasis on the pure analog electronica power, using classic synths, sequencers and drum machines.

via synthjunk:

Influenced by electronic music of the 70’s 80’s & 90’s.

Recorded using Ableton live with minimal overdubbing.

Robot featured is home made.

Ableton Live tips: This set of videos, via Bjorn Vayner, shows “features in Live you may have overlooked or forgotten about.”

Part 1 looks at ways to resize multiple tracks in the Session View and how you can continue a stopped Session from where you left off.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 2 looks at how you can change the tempo and/or time signature by triggering a scene, how you can expand the Mixer View and how to capture and insert a scene.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Part 3 looks at how to make custom names for notes or ranges of notes appear in the MIDI editor.
The second trick shows a quick way to double the output of your computer keyboard.

Matthew Davidson has put together a couple of videos demonstrating how you can run monome apps in Ableton Live 8 with the help of Max For Live.

Davidson notes:

maxforlive simplifies monome workflow.

For example, if you want to use polygomé with a DAW, you must open your DAW software, open polygomé, set up sync in polygomé, set up sync in your host app, set up MIDI output routings from polygomé, set up MIDI routings in your DAW. There is a lot of overhead.

With maxforlive, you simply drag polygomé into your track as a MIDI effect. Then you can start playing immediately. There is no setup. Everything is in sync.

Here’s another video, by Davidson, that demonstrates a stepfilter audio effect he created for Ma For Live.

If you’re working with the monome + Max For Live combination, leave a comment with your thoughts on it!

This Ableton Live tutorial looks at using sends and returns.

via PrimeLoops:

The sends and returns in Ableton are often overlooked, they are very simple to use, and save you CPU power, plus give you more control over a bunch of channels effects, this ones simple yet effective!

Stay Creative!

Ableton Live: Dubspot Instructor, Michael Hatsis, shows how to add Space and Dimension to Minimal Techno style drums.

Topics covered include using Drum Rack’s Send and Return tracks, as well as Creating and using a Plate and a Room style reverb in Ableton Live.

via DubSpot:

If you’re excited about Max For Live, but don’t know anything about Max, check out max4live’s video tutorials.

This video looks at message ordering in Max. There’s a beginning Max video also.

This video, by Andy by way of Tom Cosm, is the first of a series of three tutorial videos on track construction in Ableton Live.

It’s designed to teach you ways you can approach writing a track, from start to finish. It covers topics such as Sound Design, Building Loops and Section Construction, Arrangements and Progressions, and Mixing.

Explains Cosm:

In this video, I start by writing a loop, made up of pads, playing a chord progression, then percussion, bass and finaly a lead instrument. This loop becomes my first hook. From there I strip it back to create a progression from intro, to a groove, then into the first hook.

Max4Live takes a look at the Novation Launchpad, a new $199 controller designed to “put Ableton Live at your fingertips.”

In addition to Ableton’s announcements today about Ableton Live Intro and their giveaway of 10 free Live Packs to celebrate Live’s 10th anniversary, it announced the release date for Max For Live and the beta release.

Max for Live will be available on November 23rd, 2009. It will cost USD 299/EUR 249. If you already own Max 5, the discounted price is USD 99/EUR 79.

If you’re a Live 8 user already, you can join the Max For Live beta.

Max for Live, co-developed by Ableton and Cycling ‘74, puts the power and potential of Max/MSP inside Live. Max for Live is a tool kit for making new devices. You can build new devices from scratch, modify existing ones or simply use devices that others have made. Max for Live includes several ingenious example devices and plenty of tutorials to take you from using to tweaking, and then to building.

Key Features:

• Build your own audio effects, MIDI effects and instruments
• Use the API to control Live Sets, tracks, clips, devices, notes, loops, parameters etc.
• Extend your hardware’s feature set: provides objects to access any hardware controllers that are connected to Live
• Includes a specialized version of Max for creating and editing Max devices (Please note: does not run independently of Max for Live)
• Comes with a selection of MAX devices that are ready to use out of the box for audio and MIDI processing, algorithmic composition, real-time performance and hardware control
• Devices keep playing in Live while they are being edited in Max
• Flexible user interface design: the UI can look like Live or completely different
• Includes hundreds of built-in Max objects for logic, MIDI, scripting, audio and video processing
• Supports video synthesis and animation via “Jitter” objects
• Includes step-by-step tutorials for learning to program with Max for Live

Ableton

Live Intro has the same basic features as Ableton Live at a lower price and comes with 7 GB of Sampled Instruments, Drum Loops, Beats and Breaks, 200 Audio and MIDI Racks and Effects and 500 Instruments and Drum Kits from the Ableton Live Suite library.

So you’re probably wondering what the differences are between Ableton Live Intro and Ableton Live.

The biggest differences are:

• Live Intro is limited to 2 stereo inputs and outputs
• It’s limited to 8 Ableton instruments per project
• Live Intro doesn’t include the Looper or the Vocoder
• Live Intro is limited to 4 VST/AU instruments and effects per project
• Live Intro is limited to 8 scenes per project
• Live Intro doesn’t support External Instrument and Audio Effect devices
• No video import/export

Full details on the differences are available in chart format at the Ableton site.