Extend your mixer channels in Ableton Live.

Posted September 17th, 2008 by Oliver Chesler
Filed Under: Ableton Live

Here is a simple tip that most people overlook when mixing down in Ableton Live. If you hover the mouse pointer above the faders and below the sends you can grab the dividing line (see the pink arrows) and drag upwards to make your faders longer. I also like to click the Show/Hide triangles (see the red arrows) and hide the Browser and Clip Views.

If you want to focus on an individual channel you can drag it wider or if your running out of room you can make tracks super thin (see the orange square). You can also Show/Hide the In/Out section, Send/Returns, Track Delay Info and the Crossfader by clicking the small icons at the bottom right of the interface (see blue arrow).

I like to mix by ear as I am making the song. Then I create a mix view like above and see if anything strange is happening like the snare being 6db louder than everything else (it happens all the time!). With the channels fully stretched you can make tiny adjustments in volume and fine tune what your ears were telling you.

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7 Responses to “Extend your mixer channels in Ableton Live.”
  1. opuswerk Says:
    September 17th, 2008 at 3:14 pm

    This is something i also use all the time. Btw did you know that you can also resize all channel strips at once if they are all selected.
    I find this very handy to have an overview of all tracks at once and then to be able to open one to look more precisely into it. Also very handy in a live situation where you have a lot of tracks going on.

  2. inteliko Says:
    September 17th, 2008 at 6:35 pm

    Full Screen

  3. inteliko Says:
    September 17th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    I love Abes..but V8.0 NEEDS to incorporate folder/group channels. They do this already with Drumrack.

  4. Hardplainsdrifter Says:
    September 17th, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    http://www.myspace.com/hardplainsdrifter

  5. Hardplainsdrifter Says:
    September 17th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

    Sorry about previous post… having troubles with your categories

    Here is what I wanted to say:

    Good tip. I love ableton, because it always seems like their are great blatant features I have hitherto missed.

  6. Mr eel Says:
    September 19th, 2008 at 6:26 am

    This is an excellent way to set things up. I’ve taken to using a similar setup when preparing to mix down.

    I also reduce the width of the channels so I can see them all on screen at once. Gets a bit squeezy with > 20 channels, but you can do it.

    Hold down the option key while resizing and it’ll do all of them at once.

  7. Colin Says:
    September 21st, 2008 at 3:07 am

    Hm… Live resets my layout everytime i restart.
    Can someone help me gettin rid of this?