Ableton Live: Tom Cosm does a “power run” through 10 Ableton Live tips.

Cosm’s tips cover:

1. Resetting a parameter to its default value
2. Moving everything in the piano roll up or down an octave.
3. Drawing lines freehand with the pencil tool
4. Changing the grid size intro triplets, or off completely using key commands.
5. Moving just a few notes in the piano roll, select them by holding down Shift and clicking.
6. Playing back the audio exactly where you last stopped it.
7. Duplicating a loop AND it’s automation.
8. Consolidate chopped loops into a neatly timed loop.
9. Zooming everything out to 100%
10. Using the virtual keyboard to trigger samples in the drum rack.

See Cosm’s post on this video for more details on the tips he covers here.

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.

This Ableton Live tutorial demonstrates how to create a reverse vocal effect.

via PrimeLoops:

In this tutorial we show you how pull of a neat vocal technique used in the industry time and time again – and it sounds great! This can be used in many genres of music, maybe as a lead into the chorus, or in a breakdown, and is also used in movie soundtracks…nice!

Stay Creative.

This set of videos, by Darren Cowley, demonstrates some advanced programming techniques with the Akai APC40 & Ableton Live.

APC40 Customization (above):

This is a quick Vimeo about how i’ve used Bomes to modify the behaviour of the APC40 within Ableton Live.

Because of the high demand for the support of this template head over to thestudiosessions.co.uk to find details of how to get hold of a copy…..

This short film is mainly to act as inspiration to others as to what can be achieved with the APC with a little bit of effort and without Max for Live….

Click here to view the embedded video.

APC40 Customization – Scene Two (Pioneer Emulation):

This is a follow up to my first Vimeo whereby i use Bomes Midi Translator to create a new scene of functionality for the clip launch buttons on my APC40. This scene is designed to mimic the behaviours of my trusted CDJ’s and DJM600. WIth it instead of the standard mapping you can consider Ableton as a bank of 8 CDJ’s ready to play….

Click here to view the embedded video.

This vimeo demonstrates how i’ve set up my DJ template using Bomes Midi Translator to get the most functionality out of the APC40….

Much of the APC40 is fantastic but it’s the little things that annoy, like the pan banks not always returning to the last value known and a lack of being able to control all the filters across each track without hard wiring a control knob and then losing it’s other functionality…

As you can see this set up solves many of these problems and brings in the ability to use Live’s Looper on the fly along with various other beatmashing effects….

To use the template you must be on Live 8.0.5 or higher and be using the full version of Bomes Midi Translator 1.7, without these the template will simply not work….

To achieve the Beat Jumping, reverse etc. effect you’ll need to have a copy of the VST version of Reaktor….

This Ableton Live tutorial looks at making lush pads.

This tutorial looks at how to make music with Apple’s Garageband.

via PrimeLoops:

Garageband is a very powerful music-making package from Apple, and can be used to make, edit and remix many styles. Here we show you the Garageband interface, and how to get to grips with the basics.

Sunday Synth Jam: Torley demonstrates shredding on the virtual flute, shows you his articulation tricks and even explains how to make a kung-fu movie soundtrack along the way.

Some of these tips even work on lame synth flute patches!

See Torley’s site for more synth jamming tips.

This video tries to answer the question “What is MIDI?”

via SynthGnosis:

Midi stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Midi is not sound whatsoever, rather, it is a signal. That is one misconception about it. In this video I’ll explain the basics of it for those who don’t know what it is and what it can do for you.

Midi is simply sending a signal to your computer or some other musical device. Since it’s dealing with signals, just think of a midi controller being like a videogame console controller (SNES!) that sends a signal when you press a button on the pad, or being just like the keyboard (typing) that’s sitting right in front of you.

Midi is a little more advanced than the signaling that I talked of above because it deals with music, and with music there are a lot of variables. For example we have a velocity range which goes from 0 to 127, and velocity is how hard or soft you hit a key on your controller. It also tells whichever hardware or software that you’re sending the signal to exactly which note you’re playing and how long you hold it for. It can get a bit more advanced, but those are the basics.

Midi is a great way to record sort of a ‘DI’ and go back to replace or switch out the sounds of a synthesizer or piano performance. Learning the basics of midi is essential to any musician these days, and you don’t necessarily have to play keys to fool with it. Anyone can PROGRAM midi.

This vintage video, with Jay Levy, is the introduction to a series of videos that show you how to play your Casio keyboard!

Best quote: “That bass player really knows how to lay down a groove down! That’s really a big hot smokin’ band we’re listening to!”

via teenageengineering, via Axehole

This video tutorial demonstrates how to make a trance lead with Genesis CM VST.

via Greeg:

Creating some nice trance leads in Genesis CM is very easy. The video shows how to do it. The best thing about Genesis are Oscillator modes. Each oscillator can have separate mode. For example OSC1 uses Full 22voices mode (quite similar to Unison knob in other synths) which is great for fat, detuned sounds. The OSC2 uses Quad Mode which is used for thin, bright sounds. By mixing OSC1 & OSC2 you can create sound that is fat, detuned but at the same time, pretty bright.

More info and whole Genesis CM sound bank you’ll find at vst-cafe.blogspot.com

This video takes a look at some of the (very) basics of getting started with the Open Labs NeKo.

via MakeItFunkyProds:

This video explains how to:

1. Turn on your NeKo / Miko studio.

2. Connect your external VGA monitor.

3. Play the Open Labs vsti’s in your software.

(BONUS: How to exit the Open Labs Shell.)

This is a nice screencast by Audiotuts+ that demonstrates how to create gated sequence effects with Ultrabeat.

Explains author Toby Pitman:

I’ve only just scratched the surface of what Ultrabeat is capable of in this tutorial. When it comes to drum sounds Ultrabeat rivals any software on the market. Its ability to combine analogue with sample synthesis allows for literally any percussive sound to be produced and we’ve seen it’s not just for drums. You could do a month’s worth of tutorials and still have more left over before you covered it all. This is testament to Logic’s feature set which is really deep once you delve into it. Next time you reach for Stylus RMX give Ultrabeat a thought. It might just become your favorite drum plug-in.

More info at the Audiotuts+ site.

Instructables has published a short guide to building a music studio in an apartment:

You cannot build a sound studio without first understanding some theory. The most important part to understand is that sound proofing (blocking the sound, so others don’t hear you and you don’t hear them) is very different from sound treatment (making your room sound good). Since this studio was built for mixing sound and music for film and TV in a residential coop apartment building in NYC, both sound proofing and treatment had to be near perfect. It also had to look good for clients… on a very tight budget.

In this instructable rather than a tutorial on the actual construction I will discuss the design, with links to the materials I used or other resources.

The guide has a lot of info on sound proofing, sound treatment and also a little about using green materials, where possible.

This video demonstrates using Pentagon as a vocoder in Cakewalk Sonar.

via sonarrules:

This video shows you how to use Pentagon, an included soft synth in SONAR, as a vocoder. You can get almost limitless results. This tutorial will take you through the basics the rest is up to you.

This official Native Instruments video shows the control capabilities of the Maschine controller with Ableton Live.

via NativeInstruments

Can you make a complete, professional track in Propellerhead Reason?

Dave Spoon gives his take on the answer.

via canecreek00

Surya Buchwald, aka Momo the Monster of VJ Kung Fu takes a look at structuring a VJ performance:

So much of Visual Performance is improv – anticipating where things are going and reacting in interesting ways. I was thinking about this recently, and about how I’m always winging it when it comes to preparing for a show (unless it’s one where I’ve gotten to really practice with the Audio artist). I remembered how much easier it was to practice improv comedy through the use of games – with real structure.

With a head full of nostalgia (and a healthy dose of MVC and Framework research I’ve been doing recently for work), I set out to create a structure for my performances.

He goes on to outline a four layer approach:

1. Background – Scene-setting clips.
2. Playground – Video Instruments (Quartz Composer)
3. Foreground – Elements on black, textures.
4. Overlay – Logos, text.

Give the video a view and let me know what you think.

The worlds of DJing and VJing are getting blurred, and Buchwald offers an interesting approach to laying down a foundation for audiovisual improvisation.

via Peter Kirn at CDM

This video is kind of cool – it shows, in about 5 minutes, how to create a modular synthesizer in Native Instruments Reaktor. 

Unfortunately, the construction is not narrated, but it’s pretty easy to follow anyway. 

via nukebass:

A very basic DIY tutorial to beginners (like me) showing how to build a basic modular synthesizer in FIVE MINUTES inside Reaktor 5.1.

Reaktor itself, comes with a large variety of tools to make modular audio stuff… powerful software indeed! You can build virtually ANYTHING you would imagine regarding audio effects or instruments! 

UrsHeckmann created this multi-part tutorial on the u-he Zebra synthesizer.

This is a nice short demo of patching a Buchla 200 Modular Synthesizer.

via PeffTV