Sandunes’ Guide To Ableton Live 10 For Indian Producers

The point at which my music making went from the old-fashioned simplicity of piano keyboards to the infinite complexity of computer keyboards was a significantly tough transition. Like many who produce laptop music, the biggest challenge for me was closing the gap between the sonic seed in my brain, and the manifestation of that idea as actual music.

Sometimes (I’d like to think) the golden idea - whether for a painting, poem, or chord progression, only exists in a small window of clock-time, and if you’re not able to sketch it, write the verse, or hit those chords - you’ve sort of lost that idea. It goes back to residing in the invisible dimension of yet-to-be-created art - waiting for you to attain some more alignment before it slips back between the layers of your consciousness to become realised creations - a process so contingent on your perfect timing.

The importance of not having cumbersome software or hardware hurdles in the way of digital art can’t be emphasised enough. The foundation for setting up a smooth outflow of musical ideas into audible vibration, comes from a practiced fluency of the language of operation. If you want to explain to a kid what gravity is about, you’ve got to be able to speak English first, right?

There were a few cues that I was guided to which distinctly cemented this foundation for me, the map looked like:

1. RTFM (read the manual) - READ THE $%^ MANUAL OF YOUR DAW (digital audio workstation)
2. Set up your own shortcuts - learn this language, speed within this process is underrated.
3. Every time you’re stuck - go to google. It’s rare that you’ll hit a wall someone hasn’t hit before.
4. Make the navigation of your software your first language. You’ll know you’ve gone a step too far if you start speaking to people in key commands, or impulsive hitting “command S” while you’re responding to an email in your web browser.

There was certainly a time when programming and automating an effective transition between the verse and chorus of a track would take a lot longer than writing the verse itself. But with the way technology is evolving, each year we close that gap. With each update and innovation in music technology, we’re closer to having computers and machines act as the extensions of our thoughts and intent, I’m not sure about you, but that sounds like living in the future to me.

This is why Ableton Live 10 is such a pleasurable new playing field - several subtle workflow improvements that will act as glue between your process and your outcome. Live 10 seems to have been planned specifically to reduce your mouse travel, improve your overall experience on the DAW, and act as an intuitive counterpart, allowing your delicious sonic ideas to seep seamlessly out of your brain and into this physical reality.

The intuitive bit is what separates Live from other music-making platforms. There’s certain concepts all musicians/producers can relate to, which have been specifically addressed by the new features in Live 10. Here’s some of my favourite ones:

I. CAPTURE:

Ever play a bunch of chords or guitar riff perfectly until you actually hit the record button? Then the unidentifiable recording ghost ruins your precision and totally messes up your take. Well, that won’t happen any more with Live 10.

Say hello to Capture. Live is now always listening to you - even when you’re simply doodling on the keys without expecting to hit those ingenious chords that will make up your next single. Now, you can access them as a MIDI clip without having hit the record button - less of a chance to lose the golden moment ideas.

Note: Specifically helpful if you’re riffing to something on a MIDI controller along with a beat/click, but if not - Live can likely guess your tempo (and even the downbeat) for you.

II. MULTI CLIP EDITING

This is one of my favourite new features which is likely to have impact on the way you edit/program your beats - especially if you’re using a whole bunch of different MIDI instruments/sources for your sounds. You’re now able to view more than 1 instrument in your piano roll, at one time.

This means you can compare different note information for multiple instruments, something that will undoubtedly aid bassline-kick syncopation and programming harmony for various instruments too.

The specifically helpful thing about this is that it works in the sessions view as well as the arrange view - which is great for identifying your conflicts before committing to an arrangement.

III. DRUM BUSS

When I’m ‘working on music’, 60% of that time is usually spent on making my drums sound good. A long winded but highly enjoyable process, and one that involves several steps. Here’s a feature which might reduce that number, and I find it particularly helpful for electronic drums or sampled drums.

Drum Buss is sort of like an all-in-1: It acts as a saturator, compressor, enveloper, also great for tuning your drums without any loss of body. Definitely a tool one can use not just on your drums, but as a sound design tool for other instruments too.

IV. COLLECTIONS

You can now tag, colour code and organise your browser within live, to customise exactly how you want to organise your files. If you’re clear about the architecture of your library, you’ve saved an average of 15 mins every 3 hours (results of my slightly disorganised personal research)

Collections is the answer to reducing tonnes of search-time with respect to finding the right sounds the minute you need them.

Here’s useful insight on how it might change your work flow.

V. METRONOME OPTIONS

Although this sounds like a trivial choice for my favourite feature, it’s the one I’m most stoked about. I’m someone who plays my live sets to a click. Earlier, I would use different samples (mostly cowbells) in a sampler, input the MIDI notes to ‘create my click track’ just so that I could modulate the tone if needed for different parts through the set. Besides that, I didn’t like that you couldn’t change the sound of the click - only the volume, in Live 9.

The fact that Live 10 has multiple options for the Metronome quality is..seriously exciting (Yes, I stay home most Saturday nights)

Besides, every musician is bound to respond differently to a different click. Don’t believe me? Take this metronome challenge with varying metronome options.

In addition to this, there’s loads of workflow tips and shortcuts that will enable you to spend more time inebriated by the juice of what you’ve just produced, as opposed to banging your head against a wall because you’re stuck making surgical edits to your track. And who knows, you might even find time to go outside and work on that Vitamin D deficiency.

Feature Image Credits: Neville Sukhia