An in depth look an Ableton 8

New groove engine

Groove patterns dynamically influence the timing and velocity/volume of audio and MIDI material. This can add life and swing to straight patterns, give a track more drive, or lend a piece an easy, laid-back feeling.

Live 8 enhances Live’s existing groove power with some important new features:

• Apply groove patterns to any audio or MIDI clips in real time. Change the feel of the whole piece or just selected clips.
• Choose from an extensive library of groove patterns, captured from songs played by some of music’s most original, expressive and soulful drummers.
• Extract groove patterns from any audio or MIDI source to build your own groove library from your favorite tracks.
• Quantize audio and MIDI in real time: non-destructive velocity and timing adjustments for rhythmic correction.
• Randomize audio and MIDI timing for a more human feel

New warping engine

Live 8 is the next logical step in warping evolution with a new, more intuitive warping paradigm and some important Warp Mode enhancements.

• New, intuitive warping allows you to adjust events on the timeline instead of stretching and squeezing the timeline around the events.
• Transient handles: Live analyzes and assigns handles to the transients in audio files automatically.
• Slice by transient: slice audio to MIDI based on Live 8’s new transient analysis.
• Enhanced Beats Warp Mode for improved warping of percussive material and new control options.
• Improved Complex Warp Mode using élastique Pro for warping complex, polyphonic material with fewer artifacts.

Looper

Looper brings the creative power of classic sound-on-sound looping to Live, without the limitations of a hardware device. Inspired by some of our favorite sample/delay devices plus a good deal of Ableton wizardry, Looper provides plenty of scope in a super-simple interface.

• One-touch operation: Looper is set up for remote operation, so you can record, overdub, undo and more using a single footswitch (not included) and without touching the computer.
• Endless overdubs, tape-loop style for infinite improv jams.
• First loop sync: Live reads the tempo from the length of the first loop you record and automatically syncs up. This eliminates timing issues and lets you record without the click.
• Simple loop management: drag and drop a loop from Looper into a clip slot to make a clip; drag a clip back again to reload it into Looper.
• Multiple Looper sync lets you run as many Loopers as you want without any synchronization headaches.

New effects

Live 8 includes five powerful new effects, each with a strong personality and serious “classic” potential. These effects add a special Ableton shine to the well-known aspects of these devices, giving you effects that are not only practical and easy to use but also inspiring.

Vocoder: the famous “singing robot” effect. Vocoder is classic vocoding plus advanced, intricate control for flexibility and rich sound design.

Multiband Dynamics: effective processing plus a refreshing approach to visualizing the dynamics involved lets you really see and hear what’s going on.

Overdrive: models the circuits found in legendary stompboxes and forms a perfect complement to Saturator and Dynamic Tube.

Limiter: an effective brick-wall limiter that will keep your peaks in check.

Frequency Shifter: frequency shifting and ring modulation for flange effects, atonal harmonics and the sound of Fifties science fiction.

Workflow enhancements

Version 8 makes Live easier with a number of most-wanted enhancements and some deceptively simple detail work.

Crossfades in Arrangement View: This much requested feature gives you real-time, non-destructive crossfades, neatly integrated into Live’s familiar workflow.

The enhanced MIDI editor now features step recording, an insert marker and editing improvements.

Group tracks let you group selected tracks (e.g. a group for drum tracks or a group for all backing vocals). Each group works like a separate mix buss with its own effects and routing settings. You can also collapse grouped tracks to preserve screen real estate.

Multi-parameter manipulation: want to lower the volume of six different tracks? No need any more to adjust six different faders; just select all six tracks and adjust one volume control.

Magnify the user interface for optimal visibility on dark stages or hi-res screens. Zoom out for the big picture.

Browser waveform display: Audio and MIDI browser preview now with waveform display and scrubbing for more informed browsing and file selection.

Plug-in parameters: Improved configuration and control for plug-ins with numerous parameters.

And many more workflow improvements: Yes, that feature request you sent may well be in there somewhere…

New in Ableton Suite 8

Ableton Suite 8 is a package which gives you a rich world of sound, perfectly complementing the tools and features in Live 8. Suite 8 provides all the instruments a musician could hope for, including a wide range of synths, a powerful sampler, electric and acoustic drums, mallets, numerous sampled instruments: 10 instruments in all. Here’s what’s new in Suite 8.

World-class library
Ableton Suite 8’s library completely surpasses everything that Ableton has ever offered before. With the creative professional in mind, Ableton has put together a well-balanced and comprehensive tool set and, above all, a wide-ranging set of beautiful sounds.

Collision
Collision is a unique instrument for authentic mallet sounds and creative percussion. Co-developed with AAS, it uses physical modeling technology to reproduce real-world instruments such as xylophones, marimbas and glockenspiels, but also provides enough depth to create truly dramatic new instruments and sounds.

Latin Percussion
Latin Percussion is a collection of acoustic percussion instruments such as congas, bongos, timbales, claves, shakers, tambourines and bells from the worlds of Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and African music. It also comes with clips and grooves, so you don’t only get the drums, you also get the drummer.

More Operator, more power
Operator, Ableton’s renowned do-it-all synthesizer, has been given a major overhaul. We opened up the hood, took a long hard look inside and did some serious hot-rod stuff. New filter types, more modulation routing options and additive wavetable synthesis with drawable partials make Operator more powerful and flexible than ever.

How to ReWire Reason with Ableton Live, and why?

Ableton Live is a professional loop-based software music sequencer for Mac OS and Windows by Ableton. The latest major release of  Live is  Version 7.

Unlike other software sequencers, Live is designed around the notion of being as much an instrument for live performances as a tool for composing and arranging. It is also often used for precision mixing of tracks by DJs.

If you have never used Ableton before, it can dratically change your music creation technique nevermind your outlook!.

Using Ableton Live, you can integrate audio recording, loops and samples with your Reason projects. This is done by ReWiring Reason with Live.

This gives you acces to some of the best control AND the best sounds!

1. Install Live on your computer.
2. Launch Live so that it can install its ReWire engine in your system.
3. Go to Live’s In/Out View and select Reason as the “In Type.”
   
4. Enable Live’s Monitoring switch.
   
5. Launch Reason.
6. Select the desired ReWire Channels in Live’s In Channel menu if you have devices in Reason routed to channels other than the Mix L & R Channels.
   

Sending MIDI from Live to Reason:

1. In a MIDI Track in Live, select Reason as the output type in the in/out chooser.
   
2. In the output channel chooser of the same Track, select the desired Reason device.
   

Notes:

• Reason is now in ReWire Slave mode; Live is the ReWire Master.
• Reason will lock to the Live tempo and transport with sample-accurate synchronization. If you change the tempo in Live, Reason will follow.
• You can record the Reason ReWire input in Live as you would with any other input in Live. (Please see the recording section of the Live manual).
• To disconnect the ReWire connection you must always quit Reason first.

NAMM 2009: Introducing the new Solo Performer Show Controller 4

Alien Apparatus Company, Inc. releases Solo Performer Show Controller 4, the latest update to its popular show control system for onstage performers. Solo Performer Show Controller, billed as the most elegant way to play live with backing tracks, controls background audio, lighting, effects processor changes, and lyrics displays.

The new release adds a new display view called Button View, where all of the songs on the selected playlist show up as buttons that can be selected for playback. Using Button View, hundreds of buttons can be displayed onscreen at the same time, so that performers who do not work from pre-defined set lists can display all of their r’epertoire onscreen for easy access. Buttons can be organized by color and the view can be configured for various button sizes and layouts.

The event editor windows of Solo Performer Show Controller now show the audio waveform with an event track underneath. Events, such as lyric displays, light scenes, effects changes, and hotkeys, may be dragged and dropped onto the event track where they will show up as colored markers. The markers can then be easily repositioned to the audio by dragging them and sliding them into a new position.

The Solo Performer Show Controller System is currently the only system available for controlling a show that seamlessly integrates audio, MIDI, lyric displays, and lighting capabilities. With its six-button foot controller, a guitar player could, for example, play a show and have all of the backing rhythm tracks play from the system while the system controls the lights and changes the singer’s vocal reverb during the choruses.

Along with the version 4 release, Alien Apparatus has also introduced a new member to the show control system family: Solo Performer Show Controller SE. The SE version is a “software editon” that comes without the foot controller at a reduced cost. Users of the new Solo Perfomer Show Controller SE may purchase an upgrade at any time to receive the full foot controller hardware package in order to add hand-free control and DMX512 lighting capablitiesfor a reduced cost.

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Turn your laptop into a multi instument keyboard and vocal-processing powerhouse

Regardless of what instrument you play or what software you use to record and compose, it’s never been easier to access massive libraries of synth and sample sounds, guitar and bass amp emulations, vintage-derived effects and so on. While all of this power and flexibility has been a boon for the home recordist, bringing these same software-derived sounds to the stage continues to vex many. The good news is that today’s multicore laptops have more than enough horsepower to handle the needs of most keyboardists, guitarists and experimental-leaning vocalists, as well as multi-instrumentalists who may need to jump between several instruments during a set. By choosing the correct software and hardware, as well as doing some critical housekeeping and asset-management chores, you can easily bring your best software instruments and effects to that stage and consolidate your hardware needs down to a few roadworthy essentials.

The host with the most

First and foremost, all of your software instruments and effects need to live somewhere. While it’s completely feasible for a keyboardist or guitarist to work solely within a workstation-style product such as Propellerhead Reason or Native Instruments GuitarRig, if you really want to take advantage of your plug-in collection or jump between instruments, you need to employ a more open-ended option. Two products that are built expressly for this purpose are Apple MainStage — part of the Apple Logic Studio bundle (; www.apple.com/logicstudio) — and Native Instruments Kore 2, which is now available in a software-only edition , as well as the software/hardware package  (www.native-instruments.com). Both programs do many of the same things: 1. They allow you to access, organize, edit, combine and recall the majority of the third-party plug-ins on your machine. 2. Both allow you to play software instruments and process live audio sources (guitar, bass, vocals and even feedback loops). 3. By largely removing the traditional elements of a DAW, both of these apps allow more CPU resources to be used for instruments and effects, thus keeping latency in check.

Choosing a host performance application will depend largely on what software you already own. Logic Studio users have a clear advantage in this department because all channel strips and saved plug-in settings are immediately available in MainStage; in other words, what you did in the studio shows up in MainStage. Kore, however, requires a little more prep work in the beginning (users will need to batch-convert their third-party plug-in sounds over to the KoreSound format), but it offers support for a wider range of plug-in formats as well as Windows PCs.

Time to organise..

The second major task in prepping your sounds for performance is figuring out exactly what you need and exactly what you don’t. If your goal is to replicate the sounds you used in your recordings, a recent demo or what have you, then that is the obvious place to start. Open up the original sessions, isolate the plug-ins that you need to use live and give each preset a specific name before saving them to a new folder. Of course, you can skip that step if you want to dive in and start playing. Either way, once you start to have a firmer grasp on what you’re going to need in a live show or rehearsal situation, that’s the time to start creating a performance library.

MainStage and Kore have different ways of creating that library. With MainStage, you’ll need to create a new Concert. A Concert can comprise any number of live audio and instrument channels, and the Performance pane can be customized to include a wide array of assignable controllers (which you can then easily map to your hardware), meters and patch selectors. You can load instruments and live signal processors in a row and select them interchangeably like presets on a piece of hardware. A single preset can comprise both audio and instrument plug-ins, and a Concert can include any number of presets. When you load a new Concert, all the associated instruments and samples are loaded in the background, and nothing really nails the CPU until a preset is selected. The load time between presets is generally very minimal.

The no hassle, buy nothing keyboard workstation

If you’re a budget-conscious keyboardist and you want a simple and reliant way to access an array of keyboard sounds that requires practically zero mousing around and almost no MIDI assignment editing, here it is.

Load up an empty 16-track session in your DAW of choice. Starting with the first track in the session, load up your first instrument sound and set this track to receive only MIDI channel 1. Repeat the process as needed (track 2 to MIDI channel 2, etc.) until you’ve loaded up all of the sounds you need or you’re out of MIDI channels. Changing MIDI channels on most portable MIDI keyboards (M-Audio Oxygen 8 V2, Axiom 49, etc.) is a simple one- or two-button process. With this setup, you only have to load one session into your DAW, and switching between sounds is as simple as changing the MIDI channel on your controller.

Music Recording Software – Sequencers, 5 of the Best

A music sequencer (also MIDI sequencer or just sequencer) is software or hardware designed to create and manage computer-generated music. In other words its plays back a musical ‘Sequence’ that you the user has defined.

Although the term ‘sequencer’ is today used primarily for software, some hardware synthesizers and almost all music workstations include a built-in MIDI sequencer. Drum machines generally have a step sequencer built in. There are still also standalone hardware MIDI sequencers, though the market demand for those has diminished greatly in the last ten years.

This article is focusing on the software side of the fence, here is is our 5 best and most popular software sequencers.

Ableton LIVE 7 

A very powerful program ideal for live applications and ‘real time’ manipulation.- One of the fastest growing programs we have.

Ableton Live 7 is your companion during every stage of the musical process, from creation to production to performance.
The Live Concept

Live offers two main views—the Session View and the Arrangement View—that interact in a powerful and unique way, allowing you to create, produce and perform your music all in a single application. Here is the principle behind each view:

Session View

Live’s unique Session View acts as a powerful musical sketch and launch pad, allowing you to try out new ideas easily and improvise freely. Each cell in the Session View grid can hold a recording, MIDI file, or any other musical idea. These ideas can be recorded on the fly or dragged in from the Browser and played in any order and at any time you wish.

 

Arrangement View

The Arrangement View offers a timeline-based approach for traditional multitrack recording, MIDI sequencing and other music production tasks. You can even improvise in the Session View, and all of your actions will be recorded into the Arrangement View, where they can be edited whenever you like.

Steinberg Sequel 2

Steinberg’s entry level sequencer arms you with alot of tools to make music very fast.- A rethink of a classic format

Sequel turns you into a producer, and gives you your own fully-loaded music studio. You need HipHop beats for your latest track? Or want to surprise your friends at your next party with your own electro live-set? Sequel gives you everything you need to produce pro-quality tracks at home, on a plane, in the rehearsal room or even live at a club.

And best of all, Sequel is so easy to use that you can get creating your own music straight away.

Want to get them bangin’ their heads to NuMetal or chill out to Ambient? Produce your own tracks in any ‘now’ musical style with over 5000 outstanding loops and over 600 instruments. Just a few minutes will see you creating your own songs, even if you can’t play an instrument or don’t have any musical knowledge at all. Because Sequel stays in the right key automatically, and never gets thrown out of rhythm, leaving you to get creative with your own music.

More than 5000 Loops (2000 instrument loops, 3000 audio loops)
More than 600 instrument presets
More than 50 audio track presets
More than 150 effects presets

Recording format: Stereo WAV16-bit or 24-bit with 44.1 kHz sampling rate (CD quality)
Supported file formats (import, drag & drop): WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA, WMA Pro, OggVorbis, Standard MIDI file (SMF)
Export: WAV, AIFC, AIFF, WAV64, OggVorbis
Export project to iTunes: one-step mixdown/export function opens iTunes with new track in destination format (iTunes converter, including MP3, AAC, and Apple Lossless)

Sony Media ACID Music Studio 7 

ACID Music Studio is by far one of the easiest sequencers to get used to, ideal for beatmatching and remix’s as well as traditional multtracking, it also is one of our most affordable entry level sequencers. – Highly underrated program capable of things programs 10 times the price can do!!

 If you’re serious about making your own music, ACID Music Studio software is the perfect tool for original song creation, multitrack audio and MIDI recording, and studio-quality mixing, and effects processing. Share your songs any way you want — burn your own CDs, upload to the web, prepare audio for podcasts, or export to your MP3 player. With built-in tutorials to guide you, you’ll be composing, mixing, and mastering like a pro in no time.

Your Music Studio

Easy Live Recording – Record vocals, guitars, keyboards, and other instruments with ACID Music Studio software. It’s easy – simply plug your microphone or instrument into your PC sound card and click Record to capture audio and MIDI.
Powerful Mixing – 3,000 ACIDized music loops, 1,000 MIDI files, built-in effects, and other tools. You can also import your own songs and MP3 files for beat-matching and mixing.
Share Anywhere – Burn your own music CDs, save the songs you create to popular formats for uploading to websites such as ACIDplanet.com, prepare audio for podcasts, or convert songs to MP3 format for playback on your portable music player.
Easy to Use and Learn – Even if you’ve never written a song or played an instrument, you can use ACID® Music Studio software to create original music, produce DJ-style remixes, add soundtracks to videos, and burn professional-quality CDs.

Steinberg Cubase Studio 4  

If you ask anyone what a sequencer is they usually mention ‘Cubase’ first.  Cubase Sudio 4 is a scaled down version giving you all the same features of the full version of Cubase without the studio based  ‘bussing’ architechture. If that statement means nothing to you, you will not be needing them!

Cubase Studio 4 is the perfect music creation and production system for composers and producers. It comes with a brand-new VST3 plug-in set, integrated virtual instruments providing more than 600 sounds, and professional notation. The unique SoundFrame™ Universal Sound Manager organizes all your sounds from every instrument in your studio.

Top-10 New Features

SoundFrame™ – Universal Sound Manager 
21 All-New VST3 Audio Effects Plug-ins 
Built-in synth engine with hundreds of sounds 
Professional score editing, layout and printing 
Extended VST mixer 
MediaBay 
Instrument Tracks 
Track Presets 
User Interface Redesign 
Drag & Drop for Insert FX

Propellerhead Reason 4

Reason is the exception to these 5 sequencers, ie this is not for audio recording. This ONLY records (MIDI) information and is played back through one of the most impressive sampled sound banks on the planet. You want excellent pianos? Reason has them. You want vintage synthesizers?…Check!  You want loops? Reason has it all.

Making music should be as easy as powering up a computer, loading up a powerful piece of music software, and getting down to business. And it is. Reason version 4 is a virtual studio rack with all the tools and instruments you need to turn your ideas into music. And it’s more than just a set of excellent synths and effects. It’s a complete music system. Step into the age of Reason.

Synthesizers, samplers, drum machine, REX file loop player, professional mastering tools, mixer, vocoder, world class effects, pattern sequencer and more. As many of each as your computer can handle. Reason is an infinitely expandable all-in-one music production environment, complete with its own realtime sequencer.

Use Reason the way you want to:

As a self-contained synth studio system – Everything you need is there, including a fast and flexible sequencer with powerful, dedicated event editors for each type of device.
As a sub-system synchronized to your audio sequencer – Process Reason’s audio output with plug-in effects and mix it with your hard disk tracks. With Reason in ReWire mode, its instruments are automatically patched into the mixer in any other ReWire compatible application. Seamless integration.
As a Workstation synth – Easily load up complex performance patches – instruments pre-routed through effects – in one single click. Perfect for live gigs and performances.
System requirements

 

Other commercial sequencers

• Cubase and Nuendo from Steinberg
• Digital Performer from MOTU
• FL Studio from Image Line Software
• Logic Pro, Logic Express and Garageband from Apple
• Pro Tools from Digidesign
• Sonar, Project5 and Home Studio from Cakewalk
• Tracktion from Mackie

Ableton Live – What is it?

Ableton has been allowing musicians to develop their sequenced music and transfer it to the live environment for years, going from being a simple loop based piece of software to becoming the extremely powerful and intuitive program that we know today.

One of its main strengths lies in its dual view ability, “Session View” and the “Arrangement View”. This means the user can define the most appropriate view for the application intended. Be that running like a standard audio sequencer program or powerful real time audio manipulation program.

The program is now that comprehensive that there are even courses designed solely for the Ableton user to learn the full capabilities of the program

The Live Concept

Live offers two main views—the Session View and the Arrangement View—that interact in a powerful and unique way, allowing you to create, produce and perform your music all in a single application. Here is the principle behind each view:

Session View

Live’s unique Session View acts as a powerful musical sketch and launch pad, allowing you to try out new ideas easily and improvise freely. Each cell in the Session View grid can hold a recording, MIDI file, or any other musical idea. These ideas can be recorded on the fly or dragged in from the Browser and played in any order and at any time you wish.
Arrangement View

The Arrangement View offers a timeline-based approach for traditional multitrack recording, MIDI sequencing and other music production tasks. You can even improvise in the Session View, and all of your actions will be recorded into the Arrangement View, where they can be edited whenever you like.

Live Showcase

Elastic Audio Manipulate the tempo and feel of your music as it plays.

Uninterrupted Creative Flow Record, mix, match and add effects without ever stopping the music.

For Studios Bring the creative power of Live to your studio environment.

For Beat Creators Streamline your beat production and gain endless creative possibilities.

For DJs Elevate your DJ sets. Remix, mash up and produce your music.

No Idea Lost Effortlessly build and browse your library of musical ideas.

And….

Defy the Timeline Freely improvise musical structure instead of constructing it.

Hands On Control Express yourself with your hands (or your feet!)

For Sound Designers Create radical variations of your samples in real time.

Live 7 Features

• Multitrack recording up to 32-bit/192kHz
• Complete nondestructive editing with unlimited undo
• Powerful and creative MIDI sequencing of software and hardware instruments
• Real-time time-stretching and warping of AIFF, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP3 files, for improvisation and instant remixing
• A comprehensive selection of built-in audio effects, including a host of creative delays, filters, distortions, studio compressors and EQs
• Built-in software instruments: Simpler for creative sample-based synthesis, Impulse for sampled drums
• Instrument-, Drum-, Effect Racks for creating and managing complex performance setups, drum kits and multi-effects
• VST and AU effects and instruments support; automatic plug-in delay compensation
• REX file support and native sliced audio file creation
• Video import and export for scoring to picture or warping picture to music
• Real-time control of parameters with any MIDI controller—just MIDI-map it or choose from a list of popular supported controllers for instant mapping
• Full ReWire support
• Single-screen user interface for simple, creativity-focused operation
• Multicore and multiprocessor support

Essential Instrument Collection 2

The boxed version* of Ableton Live 7 includes the Essential Instrument Collection 2, a multi-gigabyte library of meticulously sampled instruments providing a choice selection of acoustic and electric pianos, guitars, bass, drums, orchestral strings, brass, woodwinds and more.

* Not included with boxed upgrades.

The Live Set: Part 4 from Bjorn Vayner on Vimeo.

http://www.ableton.com/
http://www.covops.org/index.php/The-CovOps-Blog/

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