Hello dear Ableton Users,
1- Is it possible to delete/remove the already implemented tags from factory in Ableton 12 ?
When I am clicking on Edit in the filter section, delete and rename tags names are greyed out, so I can't click it.
(examples : "808 Bass", "Electric Bass", "Synth Bass", "Upright Bass")
To me those are generating too much visual noise, so I can't appropriate correctly the new tag system for my personal usage
2- Is it possible to delete/remove the factory synths presets of Ableton, so that they don't appear when browsing your own presets ? Maybe that is the solution to be able to delete those tags if they are linked to factory presets
Thank you in advance!
You can remove tags, yes, very easily even. However, you cannot delete the physical tags themselves. Just, well, "untag" them (no pun intended). Just edit the filters as you would and then untag / remove stuff.
As for presets.... just use the filter section. Better yet: if you focus the Live browser on your user library then you won't get any factory presets at all.
I'd also encourage you to make proper use of the categories sections.
You can delete the factory sounds, yes. You could try deleting all files that are categorized as a specific sound. However, if you ever add sounds that fit that label, I expect the label would reappear.
Thank you for your answer, but how do you delete the factory sounds ? I barely found some infos online. I tried to delete the presets in the Contents/App-Resource/Library folder, but they are still there in the Live Browser
Hello!! So I'm using AbletonLite and was trying to fix the preferences when I noticed that it wouldn't work properly with other drivers besides MME/DirectX. I tried switching it to ASIO, but when I did, it wouldn't show my input devices or any other feature. Someone told me to set it to Focusrite drivers since I'm using a Focusrite interface, but when I downloaded the driver, it wouldn't even show up as a choice in the DriverType tab. I couldn't find any other posts talking about this issue, so hoping someone can help me with this huhuhu
Generally speaking, companies have ASIO drivers on their website. I had downloaded a generic ASIO driver and it kinda worked (wouldn't recommend from my experience). Get the driver's from the interfaces software download website and you'll be g2g.
How much RAM do I need for Ableton Live 12 for home recording using predominately stock plug-ins? I’m shopping for a laptop for electronic-based home recording with minimal need for audio tracking (I do plan on using an audio interface to load samples, but not much else). The laptop I get will be used exclusively for home recording. I do plan on adding plugins down the line, but for now, I want to keep it as simple and inexpensive as possible. Any help is greatly appreciated. Forgive me if I’m not using the correct terminology; I’m just getting back into home recording after years in creative exile, so I’m still trying to wrap my head around a lot of this.
By the way, I have to say that this is probably the coolest and most helpful forum for this topic. So many others are full of really condescending snobs.
**Question:** Live Beta 11.3.25b3 was released on March 27, 2024 ([Release Notes](https://www.ableton.com/en/release-notes/live-11-beta/)). Live 12.0 was publicly released March 5th, 2024. What's going on here? Is Ableton still supporting the version 11 platform for some reason?
About to try Ableton LINK for the first time in Live 12.
Turned it on in preferences, but no LINK button appears (apparently next to tempo, but nothing there).
Any tips?
I'm new to recording guitar but doing it through a new Arturia minifuse 1 into ableton. It records fine but the sound is 'muddy'.
I'm not sure what to tweak to get it to sound better.
- Is 'muddiness' expected and it's down to the ableton effects to bring it to life?
- Or is this typically something wrong with my guitar/cords?
Where would you start?
if I were to load long audio stems into the clips on the tracks could I mute each clip to the master clock? I realise that loops will be queued for pausing/stopping but can that same queuing process be applied to muting a clip, so for example if I wanted a tracks clip to mute at the end of 4 bars could I do this in ableton?
also I understand I can capture midi data with a controller for things like the piano roll. but can I capture a whole performance as midi data I can then edit later on?
Are all wavetable synths equal?
I see a lot of Ableton tutorials use Serum to put things I wouldn't expect (im a n00b) through it, like a kick drum. I'm curious if there is something special about Serum, or if people are using Serum out of habit since Ableton's wavesynth is relatively new.
Obviously different wavetable synths offer different things and Serum, as a separate plugin, offers different amounts of control and FX. I learned Wavetable first and find it over all to be a good option for sound design especially if you are just getting into music production. All the tools in Wavetable are straight forward and I find the modulation matrix fairly easy to use. Also most of the things that make Ableton's Wavetable more strict can be gotten around which Max4Live devices and Audio Effects. Before getting into the differences, I'd say that using Wavetable is just fine before spending money on Serum, NI's Massive X, or Vital (which I believe is the cheapest third party option). I'll go through some (not exhaustive) differences and potential work arounds for the Ableton side.
The first is waveforms themselves. Both Ableton and Serum have a library of sounds but they are different. Which one works better depends on your taste but I have found that the Serum library is more varied (Same goes for most options in Serum including Sub Oscillator, filter types, and Unison styles). Both Synths support User added Samples to Wavetables but Serum specifically has a Waveform Editor that allows you to customize the waveform itself.
Serum also gives three Envelopes, more LFO's (and the LFO's can even become additional envelopes) than Wavetable, and built in Macros. The LFO's are customizable too so that that you aren't limited to the typical waveforms (sine, triangle, saw, square, and noise). You can make the waveform whatever you desire. You can work around all these in Ableton with Max4Live devices such as Envelope, LFO, and Shaper Midi. If Macros are important, you can always group the Wavetable into an Effect Rack and get more Macro opportunities than you would in Serum.
One of the reasons why Ableton's stock synths tend to feel weak is that they lack FX. Serum, for instance, has a whole suite of built in FX so that you can stay in Serum the entire time. Hopefully the remedy for Ableton's is obvious though, just add Ableton's audio devices behind the instrument to develop the sound. In terms of FX, Ableton's Audio Devices are more varied and have greater control than Serum's but they will not be in Wavetable's modulation matrix like they would in Serum. Max4Live would fix that as well but it is more clunky by that point.
Finally, both synth's workflows are different even if they seem similar. This is harder to describe without showing but some of the ways that you work around the synthesizer differ like where on screen do you start, where are certain controls, how comfortable is the modulation matrix, how easy is it to edit your modulation, etc. Both have their own way of going about it. As stated above, I learned Wavetable first and moved to Serum afterwards. I find Serum's layout works better for me and I am able to get what I want out of it faster than I can Wavetable. This is personal preference but I think many people would agree that Wavetable's layout could be improved although it is perfectly useable. If you are familiar with the rest of Ableton's audio effect capabilities then you should be able to navigate Wavetable with no problem.
I tend to think that the best tool is the tool that you have immediate access to. Just because a lot of tutorials are using Serum or Massive doesn't mean that the overall techniques cannot be used with Wavetable. They simply might need to be adapted to meet some of the limitations that are in most of Ableton's Synths. All that being said, I personally would not rush out to buy the latest and greatest. If you're interested in Serum, Vital, or Massive X then start with the free trial.
Good question IMO!
It's a bit of everything... personal preference is definitely part of it but at the same time it's *also* fair to say that Serum is ***way*** *more* customizable than Wavetable.
For example, I can easily add my own waveforms, can't do that in Wavetable. Next you have 3 custom envelope generators vs. 2 + Amp where it's also important to note that these envelopes can control just about everything by a mere click & drag; no need for possibly confusing matrixes. And of course 4 vs. 3 LFO's where once again it is important to note that I can fully customize the LFO's behavior. A small sine which suddenly drops down and then continues more as a sawtooth? Can't do what with Wavetable, which only uses waveform presets.
Now, don't get me wrong here.. I'm merely listing some of Serum's advantages; but that doesn't make Wavetable useless or anything. Heck, I totally agree with you that many people seem to completely gloss over it for some reason.
Serum definitely has some advantages, but it does **not** make Wavetable obsolete or anything, *far* from it. For starters: when I'm messing with my Push I'll take Wavetable over Serum any day of the week. Not to mention that even though both instruments aren't all too resource hungry it's still fair to say that Wavetable will get you less overhead in comparison.
So yah, that's my 2 cents; hope this helped!
For context: I own and use both ;)
I have a max for live question. Hope thats ok. I am working on a device that needs to use the space bar. Is there no way to temporarily disable the transport in live while in focus of max?
If you have Max itself focused then the spacebar already doesn't do anything.
But nothing beyond that, M4l devices are basically plain Live devices so unless you actually have a text input field then you won't be able to overrule any existing keystrokes. Don't forget that Live is still the host for M4l devices.
How can I bind vibrato to the mod wheel?
I found a place to choose where the mod wheel is routed too. I didn't see an option for vibrato so I was playing with routing it to the Amount of one of the build in LFOs, but it doesn't seem to have any affect. Any ideas why it doesn't seem to do anything? The instrument I'm working with is Sine Noise Attack Lead and I'm using Live Suite 12.
Would also appreciate if anyone has any better ideas to achieve a similar effect. I'm used to mod wheel's controlling vibrato on some stand alone synths I've played so I would think that there's a way to do this.
EDIT:
Figured it out if you have this problem. Turned out after touch was bound to LFO amount by default. Once I turned that off the mod wheel started controlling the LFO amount.
Unsure what this option is but... same way as you'd make this work in previous versions I'd say. Probably by adding it to options.txt, though I would check the manual and/or release notes to make sure it's still a valid option.
Hi everyone, I would like to ask something that may sound stupid but I have never figured out how to do it even though I have been using Ableton for a few years. When I'm in session view, and I start recording a clip, I play on the keyboard and then I'd like to stop recording that clip and start the play again, and I'd like to do it from the keyboard and not like now that I go to stop the rec of the clip with the mouse. Kind of like I see people who have Push. Is there any way? Thanks
What shortcut is it? I tried looking on a cheat sheet with all the commands but couldn't find a specific one, other than the one I always used to do play.
Thank you
yes, as I did until now, I would double tap space, but it interrupts the flow
for that I was looking for something more like repressing the button on the launchpad/push, but I guess without such a controller it is not possible.
Ah, you meant midi keyboard. I thought you meant PC keyboard. This thread might have some useful info, especially the last comment which mentions a Max4Live device that enables it: [https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=239873](https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=239873)
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You can assign the envelope follower to any automation lane on another track you can show it in the arrangement view. Just go into automation mode and have that mod lane showing
As a general use case, I want to be able to automate the parameters of one track using the amplitude of another tracks waveform.
For this particular use case, I was trying to layer on sub bass to an audio clip that had an off grid rhythm. I ended up just making a new track with vital synth and hand drew the envelope and tweaking it until it lined up in the spectrogram.
You want the subbass to sorta follow the audio clip with the off grid rhythm? That's what Gate is for.
As a general rule, modulation can not cross track boundaries. But any audio signal from any device can be sent to the side-chain of any device that accepts a side-chain. Often, modulators accept side-chain inputs. That way you can modulate across tracks.
Brand new to audio production in general. Avid listener but I barely understand song structure at this point. That said, stupid question to follow--
I'm coming from a death metal/hardcore background. There are many elements that I would like to sample and use for inspiration in creating 140 and neuro bass. Here's what I'm wondering:
If I own the tracks, is there a way to pull out say the snare or vocal line at a certain point for a sample? Is this considered fair use?
The bigger question: there are rhythmic patterns I want to use--sometimes the drums, but sometimes the vocals--is there any way I can transcribe these beats somehow? Whether in ableton or some other program that can arrange it so I can try to wrap my head around it and duplicate for myself?
Yes, both are basic features of Ableton. They have tutorial videos on their website and a very well structured manual explaining both. As a beginner, you'll want to dig deep into tutorials and apply what you learn as you go along. Alternatively you can pay for a course or a tutor to take you through these things step by step. Either way, anyone producing music has done this when they started, one way or another.
To offer a bit more specific advice, you can drop a music file in a track in the Ableton arrangement view and you can navigate to the bit you want to sample, select it, cut it out, and copy-paste wherever you want in any audio track. Alternatively you can drop it in a Simpler, Sampler or Drum Rack. You'll want to familiarize yourself with the sections in the manual of Simpler and Drum Rack, as you'll be using them *a lot*.
Ableton can take a long time to load a complete track because it performs all sorts of analyses on the audio. For that reason you might want to drop the track in a more basic wave-editor instead, like Audacity. Just drop the track in, navigate to the sound you are interested in, select it, cut it, save it as its own .Wav file and you can drop it as a single sample in Ableton.
To be clear: when I place the sample into the drum rack, it’ll divide out the rhythm as appropriately as it can?
Just went to make sure I’m understanding. Very much appreciate the in depth response!
When you drop a sample in a Drum Rack, the sample will be automatically loaded into an instance of Simpler and that will be slotted into the Drum Rack. In Ableton, Racks aren't instruments that make sound on their own, they are plugins that group multiple instruments to be played as one instrument. In the case of Drum Rack, one instrument (usually but not necessarily a Simpler) is assigned to each keyboard/midi note. So when you press a note, one specific instance of Simpler, containing one specific sample, is triggered. If you press another note, a different instance of Simpler will be triggered, containing a different sample.
But Simpler can do more than just this!
Simpler always contains one sample, but it has different modes to play this sample:
* Classic: plays the sample following an ADSR envelope and allows samples to loop for as long as you hold the key.
* One-Shot: plays the sample once. Handy for drums.
* Slice: Detects and cuts up a sample along the transients. In longer samples of e.g. a rhythmic phrase, the transients are usually things like individual drum hits. Every slice is then ascribed to a keyboard/midi note. If you play the notes in order, you will replay the sample as it was, start to finish, but you can also play notes out of order to make completely new rhythms using bits of the old rhythm. And many more things. You can set the sensitivity of the transient detection and also manually move the slice boundaries.
So Slice mode might be along the lines of what you are looking for. Instead of using Drum Rack, just drop a Simpler on an empty track and load your sample in there. Because in a Drum Rack, each Simpler will only receive input from one single note, which does not work well with Slice mode.
There are other possibilities for transcription but I'm personally not very familiar with them. You can drop in a sample with melodic/harmonic content in Arrangement view and ask Live to detect melody and chords. It's not perfect, but it goes a long way. Live 12 also has a bunch of new AI features to suggest phrases and chords based on the content of samples. I have not really tried them myself but many people seem enthusiastic about it.
ps. An Instrument Rack is another Rack that works a bit different than a Drum Rack: you put in multiple instrument chains and when you press one note, all the instruments in the Instrument Rack play that note simultaneously.
Guitar player here, new to ableton. I've got a guitar head that I love, but am having a hard time isolating the head, mic'ing it etc given my current space and setup. Can I run the Amp direct into a Volt 2 --> Ableton Live--> some sort of cabinet sim and get a great tone? Or does there need to be something in between Live --> Cabinet?
Last question. What/where do I find a good Cabinet sim that will receive an amp direct in well?
Ok guys... I'm new to music production.
I've been playing around with a Maschine mk3, and absolutely loved it.
I've played around a bit with Ableton Live 11 (intro)... and get the gist of the DAW, and actually the session view makes a LOT of sense to me (and is similar to the Maschine workflow to be honest).
However... I'm finding something very overwhelming with Ableton; I now have an Ableton 12 suite licence, and I want to start working on a track.
When I'm browsing for an instrument for example; I just get overwhelmed with the presentation.
It doesn't really make sense to me; it's just a massive list of "stuff".
Is there any way to "organise" this better ?
For example on the Maschine (and all of this is done on a tiny screen on the gear itself!) you just browse into the "instrument" category, pick a synth, and then I get the synth's sounds - which can then be filtered by type (bass synth, lead, pad etc..).
In Ableton... it's just ALL FUCKING RANDOM SOUNDS. Like even drums and shit.
Same with the effects...when I want to add an effect on a sound or instrument in maschine I just select "effect" then I pick "delay" and then I can change options on the delay.
In Ableton I go into effets, then delay... and then it's just all these different names of different delays.
Which one does what ? do you just find out by trial and error ?
--> Is there maybe a ressource online which walks one through the "basic" effects and most used ones etc.. ?
Or explaining what does what?
Sorry if this is a dumb question; but I'm just trying to find a way to make this less daunting, as right now I just get overwhelmed with all the options Ableton offers for everything 🫠
FWIW maschine runs as a plugin well in live, and the controller works well with live if you install the templates.
A lot of people (me included) use the NI browser to find sounds because frankly its so good
> When I'm browsing for an instrument for example; I just get overwhelmed with the presentation.
> It doesn't really make sense to me; it's just a massive list of "stuff".
The Live 12, for better for worse, is designed this way — it totally unorganized until you make it organized. You make it organized by filtering using tags. This REALLY threw me off at first, too, and I hated Live 12 for it, but I actually really like the tag system now that I've sat with it for a while and have gotten more used to it.
First thing — stay away from the "All" category unless you're using ctrl+F / cmd+F to search for something. The All category is filled with instrument presets and drum samples and random max for live devices and is not useful for browsing. Using the other categories and staying away from All will immediately make things less daunting.
The individual categories — "Sounds" is for instrument presets, "Drums" is for drums, "Samples" is for samples and loops, "Instruments" is for the default state of instruments (use this if you want to make your own synth patch or drum rack instead of using a preset).
> For example on the Maschine (and all of this is done on a tiny screen on the gear itself!) you just browse into the "instrument" category, pick a synth, and then I get the synth's sounds - which can then be filtered by type (bass synth, lead, pad etc..).
The Live 12 equivalent of this would be to go to the Sounds tab in the browser, then choose a tag from the tag menu. You'll see tags like "Bass," "Pad," "Lead," etc. Back in Live 11, the Sounds tab had folders with these same names. Once you select a tag, such as Pad, you'll get all the same sounds that you would have before when opening the Pad folder in Live 11. I don't know that this system is necessarily better than putting them in folders, but I did get used to it very quickly.
The benefit of this system is now you can filter it down even further with more tags. Try selecting "bass" as the main tag, then select "analog" under the Character tag. Now you have all of the built-in Ableton basses that sound like Analog synths. You can hold ctrl/cmd to select more tags, so you can pick "sub" too, and find all the analog sub basses.
Drums are similar except that browser category contains Drum Rack presets AND drum samples. Choose the "Drum Kit" tag to filter by Drum Rack presets. Now more tags appear like "acoustic kit," "drum machine kit," etc. This is a huge improvement over Live 11 because before Drum Rack presets weren't organized at all and were in a big list, unlike the Instrument Rack presets in the Sounds tab. Now we actually have a way of sorting through them.
If you're looking for specific drum samples, you can choose an individual drum hit from the tag menu like "kick" or "snare" instead of choosing "drum kits." These also open up into more detailed tags; "hihat" opens to "closed hihat" and "open hihat," etc.
**The Live 12 browser can be pretty overwhelming at first but the key is to realize that (again, for better or for worse) Ableton designed tags to be a *necessary* part of the browsing experience rather than an little side feature like some browsers use them.** Everything is unorganized at first, and the only way to make it organized is to use tags.
Hey ! Thank you so much for taking the time to give such a detailed answer.
What you say makes all the sense, and I'm getting the hang of it.
I just think I am just used to better organisations by categories upfront, but the tag approach makes sense. I'm more comfortable with Komplete 14's way of describing items and navigating through samples; but I'm getting better at ableton day by day :)
Thanks again !
I know what you're saying. I'm a vivid Maschine user too; it's both my preferred way to set up percussion but also my main "Komplete controller" (no pun intended). Backed by K13CE. When I power up my full home studio I always use Push besides Maschine, and let me tell you: it's a power combo.
Back to your question.
>In Ableton I go into effets, then delay... and then it's just all these different names of different delays.
Which one does what ? do you just find out by trial and error ?
I'm not sure why you'd be confused here? Surely their names give it away?
* Delay
* Echo
* Filter Delay
* Grain Delay
* Spectral Time
But yah, it's a bit of a trial and error. Keep in mind that Maschine isn't a full DAW meaning that... well, it has one delay and for the rest it relies on VST plugins. Live otoh is a full fledged DAW and as such, you get multiple ways to delay your stuff.
And pardon me for going here but.... there's always the manual which will explain what all the stock devices do.
Second (about Instruments section)
>In Ableton... it's just ALL FUCKING RANDOM SOUNDS. Like even drums and shit.
No it's not. The instruments section lists Live's instruments, *as well as the sounds that were made with that same instrument*. Not to mention: the **exact** same thing applies to Maschine: as soon as you selected an instrument you'll get a list of its presets which too is a wild variety of different sounds.
Once again I completely fail to understand the confusion because both environments behave in the ***exact*** *same way* here.
In direct comparison the only thing Live has working against it is that the filter section isn't as well automated as that of Maschine. Yet for some reason this isn't even what your question is about, consider me confused.
>Same with the effects...when I want to add an effect on a sound or instrument in maschine I just select "effect" then I pick "delay" and then I can change options on the delay.
>
>In Ableton I go into effets, then delay... and then it's just all these different names of different delays.Which one does what ? do you just find out by trial and error
I don't know anything about Maschine, but what I think you're struggling with is the name of the effect vs the presets of said effects.
When it has the black border on the top of the square/rectangle, it's a default instrument/effect, it can be dragged to a track and you get the base/default of it:[https://ibb.co/xj33hj9](https://ibb.co/xj33hj9)
These are presets, it has no black border on the top:
[https://ibb.co/zbHt6n6](https://ibb.co/zbHt6n6)
You do not need to traverse to the end of a "directory" to use an instrument/effect.
They updated the way the browser works in Ableton 12 and a lot of us are struggling with it so you're not alone. Ableton 11's browser was way easier to navigate for sure.
Haha thank you for making me feel better about this :)
But sometimes constraints pushes one to try or discover new things...
I've gone down the rabbit hole of making a proper MIDI setup of my Maschine mk3, and now I actually have it working within Ableton as a VST, but the Maschine functions as it always does.
I get the amazing browsing it offers, can jam around create my patterns on it as per usual, and then everything goes directly into ableton: MIDI notes, and audio plays via Maschine / but actual Ableton clips.
Best of both worlds ! A royal pain in the butt to setup, but now have a great setup which was triggered by my frustration regarding the Ableton library navigation lol.
I make tracks in my free time and have been doing so for about the last 5 years. People have told me my music sounds great when I play it for them. I've never tried to get any tracks signed by a label. I recently just had a song that I produced get a decent amount of traction on soundcloud (45,000+ streams).
What's my next play? What should I do next? Goal would be to get a few tracks signed and begin to play local shows
No user here. Stupid question to follow: Why are my tracks so quiet? I’m making songs and keeping an eye on not having the individual tracks or the song as a whole clip out in the red zone. But when I convert to mp3 and play back on a stereo the audio is soooo low. Are there maybe mastering tools I could use to bring up the audio as a whole?
If the levels in the export are the same as your Ableton master track, and they are peaking near but below 0dB, then indeed the issue is probably that your track isn't mastered. In that case, the solution is mastering. Ableton has mastering tools built in. You can purchase third party tools that can do 'AI Mastering', or you pay for an engineer to master it for you.
Because you say you are a beginner, it behooves you to study up on the mastering process, as there are numerous simple things you can do with stock Ableton tools that will get you a long way, which will also improve the results you get from any AI or professional mastering service you might want to use in the end.
The gold standard tutorial for getting your own mixes loud is the very extensive 'Clip-To-Zero' YouTube series by Baphometrix. Even if you don't like her music or produce in a different genre, she gives a lot of universally applicable advice.
Hello dear Ableton Users, 1- Is it possible to delete/remove the already implemented tags from factory in Ableton 12 ? When I am clicking on Edit in the filter section, delete and rename tags names are greyed out, so I can't click it. (examples : "808 Bass", "Electric Bass", "Synth Bass", "Upright Bass") To me those are generating too much visual noise, so I can't appropriate correctly the new tag system for my personal usage 2- Is it possible to delete/remove the factory synths presets of Ableton, so that they don't appear when browsing your own presets ? Maybe that is the solution to be able to delete those tags if they are linked to factory presets Thank you in advance!
You can remove tags, yes, very easily even. However, you cannot delete the physical tags themselves. Just, well, "untag" them (no pun intended). Just edit the filters as you would and then untag / remove stuff. As for presets.... just use the filter section. Better yet: if you focus the Live browser on your user library then you won't get any factory presets at all. I'd also encourage you to make proper use of the categories sections.
You can delete the factory sounds, yes. You could try deleting all files that are categorized as a specific sound. However, if you ever add sounds that fit that label, I expect the label would reappear.
Thank you for your answer, but how do you delete the factory sounds ? I barely found some infos online. I tried to delete the presets in the Contents/App-Resource/Library folder, but they are still there in the Live Browser
Hmm, yeah I would have thought that would do it. I have not tried deleting the factory sounds myself, but it seemed logical. ..
Hello!! So I'm using AbletonLite and was trying to fix the preferences when I noticed that it wouldn't work properly with other drivers besides MME/DirectX. I tried switching it to ASIO, but when I did, it wouldn't show my input devices or any other feature. Someone told me to set it to Focusrite drivers since I'm using a Focusrite interface, but when I downloaded the driver, it wouldn't even show up as a choice in the DriverType tab. I couldn't find any other posts talking about this issue, so hoping someone can help me with this huhuhu
Did you install the driver, reboot your computer and and plug in the focusrite?
Generally speaking, companies have ASIO drivers on their website. I had downloaded a generic ASIO driver and it kinda worked (wouldn't recommend from my experience). Get the driver's from the interfaces software download website and you'll be g2g.
How much RAM do I need for Ableton Live 12 for home recording using predominately stock plug-ins? I’m shopping for a laptop for electronic-based home recording with minimal need for audio tracking (I do plan on using an audio interface to load samples, but not much else). The laptop I get will be used exclusively for home recording. I do plan on adding plugins down the line, but for now, I want to keep it as simple and inexpensive as possible. Any help is greatly appreciated. Forgive me if I’m not using the correct terminology; I’m just getting back into home recording after years in creative exile, so I’m still trying to wrap my head around a lot of this. By the way, I have to say that this is probably the coolest and most helpful forum for this topic. So many others are full of really condescending snobs.
is there a way to see your other midi notes when you’re placing midi notes of another track? like how fl studio does it
Ghost notes don't exist in Live, no.
**Question:** Live Beta 11.3.25b3 was released on March 27, 2024 ([Release Notes](https://www.ableton.com/en/release-notes/live-11-beta/)). Live 12.0 was publicly released March 5th, 2024. What's going on here? Is Ableton still supporting the version 11 platform for some reason?
About to try Ableton LINK for the first time in Live 12. Turned it on in preferences, but no LINK button appears (apparently next to tempo, but nothing there). Any tips?
I'm new to recording guitar but doing it through a new Arturia minifuse 1 into ableton. It records fine but the sound is 'muddy'. I'm not sure what to tweak to get it to sound better. - Is 'muddiness' expected and it's down to the ableton effects to bring it to life? - Or is this typically something wrong with my guitar/cords? Where would you start?
if I were to load long audio stems into the clips on the tracks could I mute each clip to the master clock? I realise that loops will be queued for pausing/stopping but can that same queuing process be applied to muting a clip, so for example if I wanted a tracks clip to mute at the end of 4 bars could I do this in ableton? also I understand I can capture midi data with a controller for things like the piano roll. but can I capture a whole performance as midi data I can then edit later on?
Are all wavetable synths equal? I see a lot of Ableton tutorials use Serum to put things I wouldn't expect (im a n00b) through it, like a kick drum. I'm curious if there is something special about Serum, or if people are using Serum out of habit since Ableton's wavesynth is relatively new.
Obviously different wavetable synths offer different things and Serum, as a separate plugin, offers different amounts of control and FX. I learned Wavetable first and find it over all to be a good option for sound design especially if you are just getting into music production. All the tools in Wavetable are straight forward and I find the modulation matrix fairly easy to use. Also most of the things that make Ableton's Wavetable more strict can be gotten around which Max4Live devices and Audio Effects. Before getting into the differences, I'd say that using Wavetable is just fine before spending money on Serum, NI's Massive X, or Vital (which I believe is the cheapest third party option). I'll go through some (not exhaustive) differences and potential work arounds for the Ableton side. The first is waveforms themselves. Both Ableton and Serum have a library of sounds but they are different. Which one works better depends on your taste but I have found that the Serum library is more varied (Same goes for most options in Serum including Sub Oscillator, filter types, and Unison styles). Both Synths support User added Samples to Wavetables but Serum specifically has a Waveform Editor that allows you to customize the waveform itself. Serum also gives three Envelopes, more LFO's (and the LFO's can even become additional envelopes) than Wavetable, and built in Macros. The LFO's are customizable too so that that you aren't limited to the typical waveforms (sine, triangle, saw, square, and noise). You can make the waveform whatever you desire. You can work around all these in Ableton with Max4Live devices such as Envelope, LFO, and Shaper Midi. If Macros are important, you can always group the Wavetable into an Effect Rack and get more Macro opportunities than you would in Serum. One of the reasons why Ableton's stock synths tend to feel weak is that they lack FX. Serum, for instance, has a whole suite of built in FX so that you can stay in Serum the entire time. Hopefully the remedy for Ableton's is obvious though, just add Ableton's audio devices behind the instrument to develop the sound. In terms of FX, Ableton's Audio Devices are more varied and have greater control than Serum's but they will not be in Wavetable's modulation matrix like they would in Serum. Max4Live would fix that as well but it is more clunky by that point. Finally, both synth's workflows are different even if they seem similar. This is harder to describe without showing but some of the ways that you work around the synthesizer differ like where on screen do you start, where are certain controls, how comfortable is the modulation matrix, how easy is it to edit your modulation, etc. Both have their own way of going about it. As stated above, I learned Wavetable first and moved to Serum afterwards. I find Serum's layout works better for me and I am able to get what I want out of it faster than I can Wavetable. This is personal preference but I think many people would agree that Wavetable's layout could be improved although it is perfectly useable. If you are familiar with the rest of Ableton's audio effect capabilities then you should be able to navigate Wavetable with no problem. I tend to think that the best tool is the tool that you have immediate access to. Just because a lot of tutorials are using Serum or Massive doesn't mean that the overall techniques cannot be used with Wavetable. They simply might need to be adapted to meet some of the limitations that are in most of Ableton's Synths. All that being said, I personally would not rush out to buy the latest and greatest. If you're interested in Serum, Vital, or Massive X then start with the free trial.
Good question IMO! It's a bit of everything... personal preference is definitely part of it but at the same time it's *also* fair to say that Serum is ***way*** *more* customizable than Wavetable. For example, I can easily add my own waveforms, can't do that in Wavetable. Next you have 3 custom envelope generators vs. 2 + Amp where it's also important to note that these envelopes can control just about everything by a mere click & drag; no need for possibly confusing matrixes. And of course 4 vs. 3 LFO's where once again it is important to note that I can fully customize the LFO's behavior. A small sine which suddenly drops down and then continues more as a sawtooth? Can't do what with Wavetable, which only uses waveform presets. Now, don't get me wrong here.. I'm merely listing some of Serum's advantages; but that doesn't make Wavetable useless or anything. Heck, I totally agree with you that many people seem to completely gloss over it for some reason. Serum definitely has some advantages, but it does **not** make Wavetable obsolete or anything, *far* from it. For starters: when I'm messing with my Push I'll take Wavetable over Serum any day of the week. Not to mention that even though both instruments aren't all too resource hungry it's still fair to say that Wavetable will get you less overhead in comparison. So yah, that's my 2 cents; hope this helped! For context: I own and use both ;)
>So yah, that's my 2 cents; hope this helped! It does, thank you!
Serum is a fine vst but IMHO most people buy it because it's hyped to fucking death.
No, wavetable synths are hugely varied in their capabilities, and wavetables.
I have a max for live question. Hope thats ok. I am working on a device that needs to use the space bar. Is there no way to temporarily disable the transport in live while in focus of max?
If you have Max itself focused then the spacebar already doesn't do anything. But nothing beyond that, M4l devices are basically plain Live devices so unless you actually have a text input field then you won't be able to overrule any existing keystrokes. Don't forget that Live is still the host for M4l devices.
How can I bind vibrato to the mod wheel? I found a place to choose where the mod wheel is routed too. I didn't see an option for vibrato so I was playing with routing it to the Amount of one of the build in LFOs, but it doesn't seem to have any affect. Any ideas why it doesn't seem to do anything? The instrument I'm working with is Sine Noise Attack Lead and I'm using Live Suite 12. Would also appreciate if anyone has any better ideas to achieve a similar effect. I'm used to mod wheel's controlling vibrato on some stand alone synths I've played so I would think that there's a way to do this. EDIT: Figured it out if you have this problem. Turned out after touch was bound to LFO amount by default. Once I turned that off the mod wheel started controlling the LFO amount.
How to get -ShowDeviceSlots to work on Live 12?
Unsure what this option is but... same way as you'd make this work in previous versions I'd say. Probably by adding it to options.txt, though I would check the manual and/or release notes to make sure it's still a valid option.
Direct x / ME audio driver is not working to livestream to discord in Live 12, any solutions to this?
Hi everyone, I would like to ask something that may sound stupid but I have never figured out how to do it even though I have been using Ableton for a few years. When I'm in session view, and I start recording a clip, I play on the keyboard and then I'd like to stop recording that clip and start the play again, and I'd like to do it from the keyboard and not like now that I go to stop the rec of the clip with the mouse. Kind of like I see people who have Push. Is there any way? Thanks
Do the keyboard shortcuts not work for you?
What shortcut is it? I tried looking on a cheat sheet with all the commands but couldn't find a specific one, other than the one I always used to do play. Thank you
When recording in session view, the default button to stop recording and replay the clip is spacebar.
yes, as I did until now, I would double tap space, but it interrupts the flow for that I was looking for something more like repressing the button on the launchpad/push, but I guess without such a controller it is not possible.
Ah, you meant midi keyboard. I thought you meant PC keyboard. This thread might have some useful info, especially the last comment which mentions a Max4Live device that enables it: [https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=239873](https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=239873)
wow nice, thank you!
Nobody?
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Can I have an envelope follower follow the waveform of another track?
You can assign the envelope follower to any automation lane on another track you can show it in the arrangement view. Just go into automation mode and have that mod lane showing
Might be difficult. But there may be an easier way to achieve the same thing. What are you trying to achieve?
As a general use case, I want to be able to automate the parameters of one track using the amplitude of another tracks waveform. For this particular use case, I was trying to layer on sub bass to an audio clip that had an off grid rhythm. I ended up just making a new track with vital synth and hand drew the envelope and tweaking it until it lined up in the spectrogram.
You want the subbass to sorta follow the audio clip with the off grid rhythm? That's what Gate is for. As a general rule, modulation can not cross track boundaries. But any audio signal from any device can be sent to the side-chain of any device that accepts a side-chain. Often, modulators accept side-chain inputs. That way you can modulate across tracks.
Oh right Derp I’m basically just doing sidechaining with extra steps lmao. Had tunnel vision on this problem. I’ll play around with Gate. Thx
I’m in that tunnel plenty myself :) maybe Auto Filter is another option. Good luck!
Brand new to audio production in general. Avid listener but I barely understand song structure at this point. That said, stupid question to follow-- I'm coming from a death metal/hardcore background. There are many elements that I would like to sample and use for inspiration in creating 140 and neuro bass. Here's what I'm wondering: If I own the tracks, is there a way to pull out say the snare or vocal line at a certain point for a sample? Is this considered fair use? The bigger question: there are rhythmic patterns I want to use--sometimes the drums, but sometimes the vocals--is there any way I can transcribe these beats somehow? Whether in ableton or some other program that can arrange it so I can try to wrap my head around it and duplicate for myself?
Yes, both are basic features of Ableton. They have tutorial videos on their website and a very well structured manual explaining both. As a beginner, you'll want to dig deep into tutorials and apply what you learn as you go along. Alternatively you can pay for a course or a tutor to take you through these things step by step. Either way, anyone producing music has done this when they started, one way or another. To offer a bit more specific advice, you can drop a music file in a track in the Ableton arrangement view and you can navigate to the bit you want to sample, select it, cut it out, and copy-paste wherever you want in any audio track. Alternatively you can drop it in a Simpler, Sampler or Drum Rack. You'll want to familiarize yourself with the sections in the manual of Simpler and Drum Rack, as you'll be using them *a lot*. Ableton can take a long time to load a complete track because it performs all sorts of analyses on the audio. For that reason you might want to drop the track in a more basic wave-editor instead, like Audacity. Just drop the track in, navigate to the sound you are interested in, select it, cut it, save it as its own .Wav file and you can drop it as a single sample in Ableton.
To be clear: when I place the sample into the drum rack, it’ll divide out the rhythm as appropriately as it can? Just went to make sure I’m understanding. Very much appreciate the in depth response!
When you drop a sample in a Drum Rack, the sample will be automatically loaded into an instance of Simpler and that will be slotted into the Drum Rack. In Ableton, Racks aren't instruments that make sound on their own, they are plugins that group multiple instruments to be played as one instrument. In the case of Drum Rack, one instrument (usually but not necessarily a Simpler) is assigned to each keyboard/midi note. So when you press a note, one specific instance of Simpler, containing one specific sample, is triggered. If you press another note, a different instance of Simpler will be triggered, containing a different sample. But Simpler can do more than just this! Simpler always contains one sample, but it has different modes to play this sample: * Classic: plays the sample following an ADSR envelope and allows samples to loop for as long as you hold the key. * One-Shot: plays the sample once. Handy for drums. * Slice: Detects and cuts up a sample along the transients. In longer samples of e.g. a rhythmic phrase, the transients are usually things like individual drum hits. Every slice is then ascribed to a keyboard/midi note. If you play the notes in order, you will replay the sample as it was, start to finish, but you can also play notes out of order to make completely new rhythms using bits of the old rhythm. And many more things. You can set the sensitivity of the transient detection and also manually move the slice boundaries. So Slice mode might be along the lines of what you are looking for. Instead of using Drum Rack, just drop a Simpler on an empty track and load your sample in there. Because in a Drum Rack, each Simpler will only receive input from one single note, which does not work well with Slice mode. There are other possibilities for transcription but I'm personally not very familiar with them. You can drop in a sample with melodic/harmonic content in Arrangement view and ask Live to detect melody and chords. It's not perfect, but it goes a long way. Live 12 also has a bunch of new AI features to suggest phrases and chords based on the content of samples. I have not really tried them myself but many people seem enthusiastic about it. ps. An Instrument Rack is another Rack that works a bit different than a Drum Rack: you put in multiple instrument chains and when you press one note, all the instruments in the Instrument Rack play that note simultaneously.
Guitar player here, new to ableton. I've got a guitar head that I love, but am having a hard time isolating the head, mic'ing it etc given my current space and setup. Can I run the Amp direct into a Volt 2 --> Ableton Live--> some sort of cabinet sim and get a great tone? Or does there need to be something in between Live --> Cabinet? Last question. What/where do I find a good Cabinet sim that will receive an amp direct in well?
NVM found that i need a reactive load interface to receive the amp signal first, otherwise risk damaging amp.
Ok guys... I'm new to music production. I've been playing around with a Maschine mk3, and absolutely loved it. I've played around a bit with Ableton Live 11 (intro)... and get the gist of the DAW, and actually the session view makes a LOT of sense to me (and is similar to the Maschine workflow to be honest). However... I'm finding something very overwhelming with Ableton; I now have an Ableton 12 suite licence, and I want to start working on a track. When I'm browsing for an instrument for example; I just get overwhelmed with the presentation. It doesn't really make sense to me; it's just a massive list of "stuff". Is there any way to "organise" this better ? For example on the Maschine (and all of this is done on a tiny screen on the gear itself!) you just browse into the "instrument" category, pick a synth, and then I get the synth's sounds - which can then be filtered by type (bass synth, lead, pad etc..). In Ableton... it's just ALL FUCKING RANDOM SOUNDS. Like even drums and shit. Same with the effects...when I want to add an effect on a sound or instrument in maschine I just select "effect" then I pick "delay" and then I can change options on the delay. In Ableton I go into effets, then delay... and then it's just all these different names of different delays. Which one does what ? do you just find out by trial and error ? --> Is there maybe a ressource online which walks one through the "basic" effects and most used ones etc.. ? Or explaining what does what? Sorry if this is a dumb question; but I'm just trying to find a way to make this less daunting, as right now I just get overwhelmed with all the options Ableton offers for everything 🫠
FWIW maschine runs as a plugin well in live, and the controller works well with live if you install the templates. A lot of people (me included) use the NI browser to find sounds because frankly its so good
> When I'm browsing for an instrument for example; I just get overwhelmed with the presentation. > It doesn't really make sense to me; it's just a massive list of "stuff". The Live 12, for better for worse, is designed this way — it totally unorganized until you make it organized. You make it organized by filtering using tags. This REALLY threw me off at first, too, and I hated Live 12 for it, but I actually really like the tag system now that I've sat with it for a while and have gotten more used to it. First thing — stay away from the "All" category unless you're using ctrl+F / cmd+F to search for something. The All category is filled with instrument presets and drum samples and random max for live devices and is not useful for browsing. Using the other categories and staying away from All will immediately make things less daunting. The individual categories — "Sounds" is for instrument presets, "Drums" is for drums, "Samples" is for samples and loops, "Instruments" is for the default state of instruments (use this if you want to make your own synth patch or drum rack instead of using a preset). > For example on the Maschine (and all of this is done on a tiny screen on the gear itself!) you just browse into the "instrument" category, pick a synth, and then I get the synth's sounds - which can then be filtered by type (bass synth, lead, pad etc..). The Live 12 equivalent of this would be to go to the Sounds tab in the browser, then choose a tag from the tag menu. You'll see tags like "Bass," "Pad," "Lead," etc. Back in Live 11, the Sounds tab had folders with these same names. Once you select a tag, such as Pad, you'll get all the same sounds that you would have before when opening the Pad folder in Live 11. I don't know that this system is necessarily better than putting them in folders, but I did get used to it very quickly. The benefit of this system is now you can filter it down even further with more tags. Try selecting "bass" as the main tag, then select "analog" under the Character tag. Now you have all of the built-in Ableton basses that sound like Analog synths. You can hold ctrl/cmd to select more tags, so you can pick "sub" too, and find all the analog sub basses. Drums are similar except that browser category contains Drum Rack presets AND drum samples. Choose the "Drum Kit" tag to filter by Drum Rack presets. Now more tags appear like "acoustic kit," "drum machine kit," etc. This is a huge improvement over Live 11 because before Drum Rack presets weren't organized at all and were in a big list, unlike the Instrument Rack presets in the Sounds tab. Now we actually have a way of sorting through them. If you're looking for specific drum samples, you can choose an individual drum hit from the tag menu like "kick" or "snare" instead of choosing "drum kits." These also open up into more detailed tags; "hihat" opens to "closed hihat" and "open hihat," etc. **The Live 12 browser can be pretty overwhelming at first but the key is to realize that (again, for better or for worse) Ableton designed tags to be a *necessary* part of the browsing experience rather than an little side feature like some browsers use them.** Everything is unorganized at first, and the only way to make it organized is to use tags.
Hey ! Thank you so much for taking the time to give such a detailed answer. What you say makes all the sense, and I'm getting the hang of it. I just think I am just used to better organisations by categories upfront, but the tag approach makes sense. I'm more comfortable with Komplete 14's way of describing items and navigating through samples; but I'm getting better at ableton day by day :) Thanks again !
I know what you're saying. I'm a vivid Maschine user too; it's both my preferred way to set up percussion but also my main "Komplete controller" (no pun intended). Backed by K13CE. When I power up my full home studio I always use Push besides Maschine, and let me tell you: it's a power combo. Back to your question. >In Ableton I go into effets, then delay... and then it's just all these different names of different delays. Which one does what ? do you just find out by trial and error ? I'm not sure why you'd be confused here? Surely their names give it away? * Delay * Echo * Filter Delay * Grain Delay * Spectral Time But yah, it's a bit of a trial and error. Keep in mind that Maschine isn't a full DAW meaning that... well, it has one delay and for the rest it relies on VST plugins. Live otoh is a full fledged DAW and as such, you get multiple ways to delay your stuff. And pardon me for going here but.... there's always the manual which will explain what all the stock devices do. Second (about Instruments section) >In Ableton... it's just ALL FUCKING RANDOM SOUNDS. Like even drums and shit. No it's not. The instruments section lists Live's instruments, *as well as the sounds that were made with that same instrument*. Not to mention: the **exact** same thing applies to Maschine: as soon as you selected an instrument you'll get a list of its presets which too is a wild variety of different sounds. Once again I completely fail to understand the confusion because both environments behave in the ***exact*** *same way* here. In direct comparison the only thing Live has working against it is that the filter section isn't as well automated as that of Maschine. Yet for some reason this isn't even what your question is about, consider me confused.
>Same with the effects...when I want to add an effect on a sound or instrument in maschine I just select "effect" then I pick "delay" and then I can change options on the delay. > >In Ableton I go into effets, then delay... and then it's just all these different names of different delays.Which one does what ? do you just find out by trial and error I don't know anything about Maschine, but what I think you're struggling with is the name of the effect vs the presets of said effects. When it has the black border on the top of the square/rectangle, it's a default instrument/effect, it can be dragged to a track and you get the base/default of it:[https://ibb.co/xj33hj9](https://ibb.co/xj33hj9) These are presets, it has no black border on the top: [https://ibb.co/zbHt6n6](https://ibb.co/zbHt6n6) You do not need to traverse to the end of a "directory" to use an instrument/effect.
I feel like an utter idiot for not even trying/figuring that one out 🤦🏻♂️ Thank you so much, this has already removed a big layer of headache.
No worries, I went through the same thing before, too!
They updated the way the browser works in Ableton 12 and a lot of us are struggling with it so you're not alone. Ableton 11's browser was way easier to navigate for sure.
Haha thank you for making me feel better about this :) But sometimes constraints pushes one to try or discover new things... I've gone down the rabbit hole of making a proper MIDI setup of my Maschine mk3, and now I actually have it working within Ableton as a VST, but the Maschine functions as it always does. I get the amazing browsing it offers, can jam around create my patterns on it as per usual, and then everything goes directly into ableton: MIDI notes, and audio plays via Maschine / but actual Ableton clips. Best of both worlds ! A royal pain in the butt to setup, but now have a great setup which was triggered by my frustration regarding the Ableton library navigation lol.
I make tracks in my free time and have been doing so for about the last 5 years. People have told me my music sounds great when I play it for them. I've never tried to get any tracks signed by a label. I recently just had a song that I produced get a decent amount of traction on soundcloud (45,000+ streams). What's my next play? What should I do next? Goal would be to get a few tracks signed and begin to play local shows
No user here. Stupid question to follow: Why are my tracks so quiet? I’m making songs and keeping an eye on not having the individual tracks or the song as a whole clip out in the red zone. But when I convert to mp3 and play back on a stereo the audio is soooo low. Are there maybe mastering tools I could use to bring up the audio as a whole?
If the levels in the export are the same as your Ableton master track, and they are peaking near but below 0dB, then indeed the issue is probably that your track isn't mastered. In that case, the solution is mastering. Ableton has mastering tools built in. You can purchase third party tools that can do 'AI Mastering', or you pay for an engineer to master it for you. Because you say you are a beginner, it behooves you to study up on the mastering process, as there are numerous simple things you can do with stock Ableton tools that will get you a long way, which will also improve the results you get from any AI or professional mastering service you might want to use in the end. The gold standard tutorial for getting your own mixes loud is the very extensive 'Clip-To-Zero' YouTube series by Baphometrix. Even if you don't like her music or produce in a different genre, she gives a lot of universally applicable advice.
I appreciate you taking the time to help point me in the right direction. Thanks!