Ableton Live Compressors & EQs In Action

Ready to make Ableton Live come alive? Well, Scottie Dugan explains how, showcasing Live's awesome built-in dynamics and EQ processors. Compression and EQ are the most commonly used effects for making your tracks and productions shine, so let Scottie demystify them and show you them all in action!

Compressors Introduction

• What is Compression? (02:28) - Scottie talks briefly about the roll of a compressor and what it is, as well as automatic volume control to reduce dynamic range.

Glue Compressor

• The Basics (06:07) - Discover the presets and the basic parameters of a compressor including the Threshold, Attack, Release, Ratio and Make-Up Gain.

• The Interface (11:14) - In this video Scottie continues from the previous video and covers the rest of The Glue’s parameters and explores its application. This includes the Range, Dry/Wet Mix, Clip and Auto Release. We will also check out The Glue’s factory presets.

Compressor

• Compressor Interface (04:39) - In this video we will look at another compressor, its presets and its interface. We’ll touch base with the basics (Threshold, Attack, Release and Make-up Gain) and the three different views; Collapsed, Transfer Curve and Activity.

• Advanced Parameters (04:31) - Take a look at some of the additional features found in Compressor. They include; the Three Modes, (Peak, RMS and Expand) the Envelope Followers, (Lin and Log) Knee and Lookahead.

Multiband Dynamics

• More Than Multiband Compression (08:20) - In this video we will go over the four different types of dynamic processing this device can provide and situations we might use them in. They include upward/downward Compression and upward/downward Expansion.

• Break Down that Crazy Interface (04:43) - In this video Scottie explains each part of the interface using what we’ve just learned about the other two compressors. Scottie goes over the three bands, the center display, and all the other parameters.

• Examples Pleeease (13:37) - In this video shows you examples of all four types of processing this device can do. It’s a work horse so hold on!

Compressors in the Mix

• Pump up the Jam (05:36) - In this video Scottie takes a look at the Sidechain feature of all the Compressors and talks about routing and EQing the Key input.

• Mastering (04:23) - In this video Scottie briefly touches on the roll of these compressors in the mastering process and look at how a Limiter is really a special kind of Compressor.

EQ Eight

• Overview (02:53) - In this video we will look at built in presets and then some basic areas of the EQ Eight’s interface including the Filters, the Display and the Spectral Analyze.

• Filters (09:06) - In this video we will look at the filters. We will go over the three parameters each filter utilizes, Frequency, Gain and Resonance while also looking at the filter types, Adaptive Q and Multi Filter editing.

• Modes (07:41) - Now let’s look at the different modes we can work with; Stereo, L/R and M/S. We will utilize Audition Mode to hear how these different modes can effect your mix.

• More Interface (04:11) - In this video Scottie looks at some of the additional features that make this EQ a great one. We’ll start with Analyze in the Main View and some of its parameters and applications. Then we will look at the Scale, Global Gain and Oversampling features.

EQ Three

• A DJ Mixer (02:54) - Scottie explores a very simple yet powerful three band EQ. We will go over it’s Filter’s and parameters as well as it’s crossover section.