Who's using Ableton? and for what? and how?

[BINARY]

Hey Gang,

Recently, my existence has been elevated to include the drumming of KJ Sawka, who's using Ableton along with a good mix of electronic drums. I did a search here, and there are a few folks who have posted some troubleshooting-type questions, but nothing specific about how people are using Ableton with their electronics. I don't know much about it, but I'm thinking about diving in.

Does anyone have anything interesting or creative that their doing with Ableton? Any tips?

Thanks!

~B.

[hairmetal-81]

I have nothing noteworthy to share, other than mentioning that I'm interested in this subject too - But maybe this little clip I've found on Youtube will give some idea or inspiration!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT6zC4QaMXg

[BINARY]

That's a great video, thanks!

I'm going to dive in. I think for learning purposes, I'll try to find a song that has samples in it and see if I can re-create it. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'll let you know how it works out.

Here's a KJ Sawka vid for you -- there are a bunch of them if you like this one. And if you like the style at all, check out his band Destroid. They're like...robots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxdVLauX7M8

[hairmetal-81]

I had a huge smile on my face! I wonder where one finds all these crazy wicked samples?

Here's Ableton in a more 'Electro' type performance:

Ableton apparently can be used to trigger effects on and off via Midi. 'Real-time drum-processing', as seen in this video (featuring Triggera's Krigg!)

[BINARY]

I've started my journey. I'm on two paths:

Immediate gratification path:
I have an old SPD-8 that I'm using along with an iPad app called "S4-Pad". It's a super-simple and super-effective sampler app that can be controlled by MIDI. I have the iPad hooked up to the Alesis IO Dock (http://www.alesis.com/iodock). I've got samples loaded, and within a few hours this evening, I had it loaded with a bunch of samples and I was playing along to "Thieves" by Ministry. I had everything I needed, so this is my baseline. (Setup: SPD-8 =MIDI=> TD-30 =MIDI=> IO Dock/iPad )

The only problem I've run into is that I now only have 8 (non-drumset) pads for samples, and Thieves requires at least 14. I'm thinking of buying the Alesis Control Pad as a cheap option to get more pads. It's possible this problem goes away with Ableton if I can have several banks and switch between them.

Long-term, feature-rich path:
So far I've only installed Ableton, and looked at it. It was not immediately apparent to me what to...you know...DO.
So that's next. When all else fails, RTFM.

[TheYardbird]

I do use Ableton when I play with my Novation Launchpad, although if we're talking about drums I think that Native Instrument's Maschine has a better library of drum samples from the get go. Both programs can get every imaginable sound, not that hard to fix. But I think that the Maschine software is both easier on the eye, easier to have to deal with and Native Instrument's sample library is superb.

[BINARY]

Thanks. It sounds like you're using Maschine for a finger-based music performance, is that accurate? I'm more of a drummer who's interested in expanding my capabilities where possible, but I still want to primarily play a drum kit. From the website, it looks like Maschine is a software and hardware solution, is that your understanding also? Do you think its possible to sample and sequence from a different MIDI device?

Thanks!

~B.

[hairmetal-81]

Just found a tutorial-video. (Left out part 1 which deals with basic midi-hookup at the edge of boredom...)
See what you can make of part 2...!

[hairmetal-81]

Here's Ableton's 'Session View' and 'Arrangement View' explained:

[hairmetal-81]

...and another one... The magic ingredient with an Ableton-menue seems to be 'Clips' - this goes in a fine direction already!

[TheYardbird]

Thanks. It sounds like you're using Maschine for a finger-based music performance, is that accurate? I'm more of a drummer who's interested in expanding my capabilities where possible, but I still want to primarily play a drum kit. From the website, it looks like Maschine is a software and hardware solution, is that your understanding also? Do you think its possible to sample and sequence from a different MIDI device?

Thanks!

~B.

I think you can buy the Maschine software from their website. Yes, the software is mainly used for producing music and such, but most basic MIDI-controllers will work with the program, you can also use just mouse and keyboard. you can use Native Instrument's Studio Drummer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwZqLfWxS6o as a VST if you plug your v-drums to your computer via MIDI. I have no idea wich of Maschine or Ableton is the ''best'' for using as a ''drum module'', I just think that Maschine and the similar programs/plugins are more easy on the eye and has a nicer feel to them. As far as samples go Maschine has great samples from the start and most websites that sells samples and such let's you decide wich format you want to download them in (Ableton and Maschine uses different audio formats I think)

I haven't learned both Maschine and Ableton to the fullest, but as far as recording, chopping samples and such I find Maschine to be better.
And yes, if you check around on Youtube there's a bunch of different tutorials on how you sample with Maschine, most videos uses the hardware/software combo, but both electronic drumkits and the maschine hardware are basically MIDI controllers so both will work with the software and it's features, might be a whole different learning curve but still.