Some days when I get home from working in Manhattan I am completely exhausted. I love keeping up with the world using Google Reader. Sometimes I don’t even have the energy to sit upright and hit the keyboard shortcut “J” in Reader to go to the next story. I started thinking that if there was an iPhone app that let me have a remote Mac keyboard I could increase the font size on my screen, sit back and remotely hit “J”. To my delight I found such an application and it’s called Keymote (iTunes link). I set it up and now can half sleep half browse from a far in a comfy chair. You can see my set up for Google Reader in the screenshot above left.
I woke up this morning and the very first thought out of my head was: Whoa I can control anything with Keymote. Ableton Live! Yes it works just fine. Keymote doesn’t have nifty things like sliders but it’s certainly useful. There are Ableton specific iPhone controllers too. Check out TouchOSC: click here
“Tired of keyboard shortcuts? Is Command+Shift+Option+J really more efficient than tapping a single button? With Keymote, you’ll never have to remember another shortcut again! Keymote creates single buttons out of complicated shortcuts and groups them by application, speeding up your productivity and boosting your workflow. Keymote acts as a universal remote for your Mac. Easily control Front Row from across the room, refresh your Twitter stream wirelessly, or play a song from iTunes without even touching your computer, the possibilities are endless.” – icedcocoa.com
Keymote is $3.99. For screencasts and more: icedcocoa.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 18, 2009 at 7:30 pm, filed under Ableton Live and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, Google Reader, iPhone, Keymote, TouchOSC. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Ireland based Sonic Academy has posted a few new Ableton tips on their site including the one above which quickly shows you how to extract a groove from and audio file and apply it to a different Midi or audio clip. At 3:36 he shows you the power of the Warp Marker by fixing a glitch. Good job. Time to extract some grooves off some OLD records…
“In this weeks tech tip we should you how to extract a groove from an audio file and apply it to a MIDI clip and a drum loop, all in Ableton Live 8″ – www.sonicacademy.com
For more info visit the Groove Engine page at Ableton: click here
This entry was written by , posted on August 12, 2009 at 4:41 pm, filed under Ableton Live and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, groove, Sonic Academy, tip. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taAh1_xIfsk
I found Swayzak by their single I Dance Alone (iTunes link). Later I found the album Some Other Country (iTunes link) to be perfect office work background music. They have released a free Ableton Live pack. It’s a 50MB download available now: click here
“Swayzak is a tech house duo from the United Kingdom that consists of James S. Taylor and David Brown. They live and work in London and released their first 12″ single “Bueno” / “Fukumachi” in February 1997 to much acclaim. It was followed up by the 12″ “Speedboat” / “Low Rez Skyline” to become part of the burgeoning tech-house scene in the UK.” – Wikipedia.org
What does the word “Swayzak” mean anyway? Is it some kind of UK thing?
This entry was written by , posted on August 6, 2009 at 8:07 pm, filed under Ableton Live, interviews, music, sounds, video and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, Swayzak. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Puremagnetik is a subscription of Ableton Live (and Kontakt/Logic) devices filled with samples and presets around a theme. This past month’s release is based on Casio’s Phase Distortion technology.
“Phase distortion synthesis is a synthesis method introduced in 1984 by Casio in its CZ range of synths, and similar to Frequency modulation synthesis in the sense that they are both built on phase modulation. Basically a sine wave is played, but by modifying the phase angle, the sine wave is bent out of shape.” – Wikipedia.org
Micropaks are $12 al a carte or $60 per year. Some interesting past “paks” include samples from toys, digital drum machines, Atari 2600s, Korg MS20 and vintage organs. More info: http://puremagnetik.com/
This entry was written by , posted on August 4, 2009 at 7:29 pm, filed under Ableton Live, sounds and tagged Casio, Micropak, Phase Distortion, Puremagnetik. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Here’s a few small Ableton Live tips I use all the time. When in Session View you can click on the small left facing arrow on any mixer channel and move it up or down using the Arrow keys. This is a great way to fine tune the volume of a Channel. If you hold Shift down while pushing the up or down Arrow Key the volume will jump negative or positive 3.12db. If you want to return any Fader to 0db simply click once on the small left facing triangle and hit the Delete key. Lastly, if you hold down Control and click the Left or Right arrows you will move to the next Left or Right Channel Fader.
Remember you can find all the Ableton Live keyboard shortcuts in Chapter 28 of the user manual. Happy music making!
For more Ableton tips and tricks: click here
This entry was written by , posted on July 14, 2009 at 4:50 am, filed under Ableton Live and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, keyboard shortcut. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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
This entry was written by , posted on June 18, 2009 at 4:05 am, filed under Ableton Live and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, Bjorn Vayner, Session View. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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
This entry was written by , posted on June 9, 2009 at 9:45 am, filed under Ableton Live, hardware, synthesizer and tagged ableton, drum machine, Minimoog, synthesizer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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.
This entry was written by , posted on May 26, 2009 at 5:23 am, filed under Ableton Live and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, Ice T, ping pong, Reckless, scratch, Scratching. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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
This entry was written by , posted on May 20, 2009 at 3:53 am, filed under Ableton Live, hardware and tagged ableton, Ableton Live, Akai APC40, controller, Tom Cosm, VCM600, Vestax, Vestax VCM600. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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?
This entry was written by , posted on May 18, 2009 at 5:18 am, filed under Ableton Live, hardware, iPhone, synthesizer and tagged filter, MF-101, moog, Moog Voyager, MSA Remote, Voyager. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Loading ...
Google Reader Updates
Recent Comments