The Little Things in Live: Part 1 from Bjorn Vayner on Vimeo.

Bjorn Vayner has a great collection of Ableton tips and tricks on Vimeo. Today he shows us two little tips that we may have overlooked. First he selects multiple tracks and resizes them (hold ALT). Next, Bjorn reminds us that holding SHIFT and Spacebar will play your song from it’s last stopped position.

See more of Bjorn’s great videos: click here

I like drum kits made from analog synths. A band from Sweden called the Steelberry Clones have posted a drum kit created solely with a Minimoog Voyager. They wrapped the kit up neatly into a Drum Rack for Ableton Live 8.

“Unlike many classic analog drum machines, the Voyager with its dual filters can create wonderful stereo imagery.  I’ve taken the time to program detailed percussive patches & from these i’m creating sample sets.” – steelberryclones.wordpress.com

Go to the full post to download the set: click here Audio demo: click here

photo credit: allert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da0Lm4yDB6g

I’ve mentioned before that the all time best record with scratching on it is Reckless by Ice-T: click here to listen. I’ve worked scratching into my own music a few times. Sometimes I ask my friend Matt (Satronica) who knows his “wheels of steel” quite well to send me something specific. There are a few scratch plug-ins that are just “ok”. Usually they are cool for some effect but nothing authentic. I like the video above both for it’s sound (not so far off base) and the fact that I can whip it out on a whim now since it’s all done with native Live devices.

Video showing how to emulate a scratch Like effect in Ableton Live 8 using the new delay Modes in the Ping Pong Delay. This is not meant to replace vinyl nor will it produce a totally authentic sounding scratch sound, but it is a Ableton Live only solution and is a nice add on to your effects arsenal. You can download the template: click here You will need Live 8 or later to open it. – DubSpot

Have you ever worked scratching into your songs? Is there a go to plug-in you like?

Related post: Scratch. A documentary about scratching.

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

As a reminder that the new Akai APC40 isn’t the only Ableton specific controller out there Tom Cosm from New Zealand let’s his video camera roll and he shows us his Vestax VCM600.

For more info: vestax.com/en/products/vcm600

Related post: Vestax VCM600 is a Ableton Specific Controller

Here’s two videos that both help you make music with hardware. One is based on 1970’s tech and the other is pure 2009. What’s more lust worthy? A green lit Minimoog Voyager or an iPhone with polyphonic velocity sensitive keys controlling Ableton and more?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W868tnYADDk

“The MF-101 Low Pass Filter’s ENV OUT Control Voltage makes a number of amazing Rhythmic Modulation techniques possible. This video shows some of these applications in a Dance Music setting. This technique is not limited to Dance Music. The applications are as endless as your imagination.” – MoogMusicInc

MSA Remote + VDMX + Ableton Live from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

“MSA Remote is a remote control application for iPhone & iPod Touch that sends OSC messages over the wifi network. This allows you to control any OSC supporting applications such as Max/MSP/Jitter, PureData, Reaktor, VDMX, vvvv, Resolume, Quartz Composer etc. In this video, OSCulator is routing the OSC (& TUIO) messages coming from MSA Remote to midi and forwarding to Ableton Live and VDMX simultaneously. Nothing is done in post, the same signal is controlling both audio and video. At the beginning of the video you can see the polyphonic velocity sensitive keys in action (yes, the harder you hit the keys, the louder the sound – works equally well when the iphone is laid on a table), and later on the faders, triggers and multitouch tuio-pad. Should be in the app store soon: www.memo.tv/msaremote_for_iphone” – Memo Akten

I like you so you can have both set ups but for fun answer me this: Which set up would you rather have?

Ableton Live & Akai APC40 from Sound Recipes on Vimeo.

This video has been making the rounds this week. The new Akai APC40 Ableton Controller definitely seems to be the one to go to for controlling Live at the moment. If nothing else it sure looks pretty!

Want some more APC40 videos? Check out Ableton’s offical intro video: click here and Akai’s own promo video: click here

Are you going to get one of these?

Vocoding Voices in Live 8 from Bjorn Vayner on Vimeo.

I use vocoders quite often. Mostly I vocode, mirror and pan hard a few last words of a verse to add tension. Although cliche the technique used subtly is one of those tricks that keeps the listeners ear interested. I prefer the sound of my Digitech Talker to any software vocoder (it’s really a pseudo talk box) but having one built-in to Ableton Live 8 is a treat. It’s all about workflow people…

“A vocoder, IPA: [?vo?ko?d?r] (a portmanteau of the words voice and encoder), is an analysis / synthesis system, mostly used for speech in which the input is passed through a multiband filter, each filter is passed through an envelope follower, the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated, and the decoder applies these (amplitude) control signals to corresponding filters in the (re)synthesizer.
It was originally developed as a speech coder for telecommunications applications in the 1930s, the idea being to code speech for transmission. Its primary use in this fashion is for secure radio communication, where voice has to be encrypted and then transmitted. The advantage of this method of “encryption” is that no ’signal’ is sent, but rather envelopes of the bandpass filters. The receiving unit needs to be set up in the same channel configuration to resynthesize a version of the original signal spectrum. The vocoder as both hardware and software has also been used extensively as an electronic musical instrument.” – Wikipedia

There are many great hardware vocoders. One is the Roland SVC-350. Check it out over at Vintage Synth Explorer: click here

Do you have a favorite vocoder or vocoding technique?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9U-UYuY0Q

If you have an iPhone and don’t already own iTM Pad this video will probably make you jump to the iTunes store to grab it. I wish I didn’t sweat so much on stage (see: here) otherwise I would be using this live.

“I was on the iTunes App Store looking at iTouchMidi Pad by Silicon Studios, and reading the few-but-strong reviews, I bought it. It was mere moments afterward that I was firing up drum loops in Ableton Live, having a lot of fun mapping iTM Pad to various settings and mangling sounds. The logical conclusion, since clear demos of things like this can be hard to come by, was to make a video review.” – Torley

Torley’s blog is filled with the kind of tech geek content I like (Wordpress, social media, Ableton) so if that’s your thing check him out: torley.com

using ableton live to send CV signals. from dan kirkhus on Vimeo.

Motu’s Volta is a software that turns an ordinary Motu audio interface into a CV controller. I’ve been watching a few videos here and there of people using Volta and this thing has got my interest. I have a good bunch of old analog synths in my studio and more control is always a good thing (except if you’re a teenager).

“Using ableton live and a handful of LFO type wav files to modulate external analog gear. fun stuff. (if you’re not interested in the “how” and just want to see the frostwave spaz out, jump to 3:30 or so.) this stuff *only* works with MOTU audio interfaces (see: volta). this is an easy and free way to send beat-synced LFOs to your outboard modular gear; moogerfoogers, sherman filterbank, little phatty… anything with a CV input… i recommend setting the warp method to “Re-Pitch” to keep LFOs smooth at extreme BPMs. or don’t… and get cool glitches.” – Dan Kirkhus

Thanks to Dan for posting this video. I think you also made me drop some coin on Frostwave Resonator. I always forget how great the MS20 filter sounds! See Dan’s Resonator video: click here

More about Motu Volta: click here

The next two days in New York be sunny and warm. My wife’s been pointing out all the holes in my favorite T-shirts. Therefore this post is for her and her wallet. Most of these prints are available on American Apparel shirts which means they fit well and are nice and soft. The classic and now fully hipsterized green Moog T? Could I be in full “Hawtin, bald, those black geek eyeglasses” Ableton T mode? Do I want to date myself with the Fairlight T? I love AD and Ohm Force but no one other than readers of this blog would have a clue what the prints mean (which is ok by me!).

Here’s the links:

Audio Damage T-Shirt
Moog T-Shirt
Ableton T-Shirt
Fairlight T-Shirt
Ohm Force T-Shirt

Bonus… Elektron T-Shirt

Which one do you want?