Creative Racks & Sampling in Live
In this video tutorial series, Ableton Live sage Brian Funk, akaAfroDJMac, shares his secrets for building truly unique sampler instruments and racks. You’ll see not just how to sample, but how each component in a rack builds upon on the others to create way cool instruments and sounds.
Videos
• Introduction (01:10) - Let’s discuss sampling and how you can use it to create your own unique sound.
• Recording Audio (07:58) - How to record audio into Ableton Live.
• Using MIDI to Sample Better (04:22) - The sampling process can often be streamlined using MIDI to send notes to our hardware.
• Getting Creative (03:26) - Let’s explore outside of the box thinking when it comes to sampling.
• Resampling (03:24) - Ableton’s resampling function is a useful tool that allows us to capture all audio currently playing.
• Processing Samples (07:58) - Now that we have some samples recorded let’s clean them up and add effects.
• When to Use Simpler (04:58) - Simpler is a powerful sampling instrument that can make use of Live’s Warping Engine.
• Using Simpler (09:56) - Let’s dive into the ins and outs of using Simpler.
• Tuning Samples in Simpler (03:33) - When creating melodic instruments, it is important to make sure your samples are properly tuned.
• When to Use Sampler (02:25) - Sampler is Live’s deepest sampling instrument with the ability to use multiple samples.
• Working with Multiple Samples (07:31) - In this video I demonstrate how to incorporate more than one sample in our Sampler instrument.
• Tuning Samples in Sampler (02:46) - How to properly tune our samples in Live’s flagship sampler.
• Key Zones (03:25) - Sampler allows different samples to be played on different ranges of keys on your keyboard.
• Velocity Zones (06:19) - Different samples can be triggered depending on the velocity of incoming notes.
• Sample Chain Selector (05:45) - One of the strengths of Sampler is that we can set up different chains of samples that each playback different samples.
• Modulation in Sampler (07:14) - Sampler has powerful modulation capabilities that can be used to drastically alter the sound of our instrument.
• When to Use Drum Racks (02:59) - Drum Racks can be a powerful sampling tool that excels in certain situations.
• Dropping Samples Presets (01:59) - We can adjust the way Drum Racks deal with samples when they are dropped onto a Drum Rack Cell.
• Getting Creative with Drum Racks (03:47) - Learn to use Drum Racks for sounds that are not just drums.
• Layering Samples (01:49) - More than one sample and up to 128 samples can be dropped on each Cell of a Drum Rack.
• Routing in Drum Racks (05:18) - One of the strengths of Drum Racks are its deep and flexible routing system.
• Adding Audio & MIDI Effects (03:29) - Let’s examine our options for creating Audio and MIDI FX.
• Audio Effect Racks (04:58) - We explore the capabilities of Audio Effect Racks.
• MIDI Effect Racks (06:32) - In this video we cover our options with MIDI Effect Racks.
• Instrument Racks (03:39) - The capabilities of Instrument Racks are described.
• Layering Synths with Chains (05:46) - Instrument Racks allow us to stack up to 128 different instruments together.
• Creating a Drum Selector (05:16) - Let’s explore how we can create a Macro Knob to cycle through up to 128 drum samples on a single Drum Rack Cell.
• Creating a Synth Selector (02:52) - This video demonstrates how we can use a Macro Knob to choose between up to 128 different instruments.
• Experimenting with Sampler (08:29) - Sampler can be used in some very experimental ways to create sounds entirely different from our original samples.
• Simpler’s Slicing Mode (06:49) - This video explores exciting ways we can use Simpler’s Slicing Mode to create evolving sounds and textures.
• Saving & Organizing Presets (05:47) - ow that we have created our own instruments, let’s cover the ways to organize them.