Sunday, January 23, 2011

"The Bridge" is gonna change everything!!

So unless you've been living under a rock, you have already heard about "The Bridge" but if for some reason you haven't basically it links Ableton + Serato Scratch Live together so that the can work seemlessly together. This has blown the doors off the DJ'ing, music making, and performing world. It open things up so much you almost don't know what to think at first.

I finally got my updates so I could try this made in HEAVEN setup and let me tell you, the little hamster wheel is spinning inside my head. But with this huge potential that has just opened up to all of us, this is gonna take a while to figure how to best use this in my, and I'm sure your guy's setups.

If you are lucky enough to own the Rane TTM57SL or the Rane 68, this setup means no more going to the studio to cut-up, clean-up, and master your mix for promo's or for selling CD's etc. Now Ableton will record all the audio as you play, it also records every midi movement, from knobs, to sliders, to buttons, even the cross fader. If you don't own those 2 mixers but instead use the SL1,SL3, or SL4 box. This setup still records audio from left and right decks but no knobs or faders, etc.

Whether your a producer who wishes to perform live or if you're a DJ who wishes to have more effects, or make your way into performing your own sounds or tracks, The Bridge has something for you. Rightly named The Bridge, this is the closest thing ever to bringing the DJ, producer, and performer in one setup.

To help wrap your mind around this here are the best videos at the moment explaining the potential. This first video explains performing with your beats, layering and looping.



The second video shows how Ableton can record your set, including all the automation.

Friday, January 14, 2011

How to create envelope curves in Ableton Live

I've had a some people ask if it's possible to add envelope curves in Ableton Live. It is! And here is how to do it.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Bridge

If you've been following this site for a bit you might have been wondering why we haven't talked about "The Bridge" yet, well the main reason was we got hammered on New Years, but also we wanted to wait for some good videos to come out explaining in a more clear way how and what "The Bridge" does.

If you are unfamiliar Ableton and Rane announced in 2010 that they were partnering on a project aptly named "The Bridge" of course and basically what it does is it allows you to Rewire Ableton Live and Serato Scratch Live. Serato being the master and Ableton Live being the slave.

When we first heard about this partnership, we nearly passed out from excitement. This will open Pandora's box essentially as this means that just about anything is possible with this setup. Especially if you use the Rane ttm 57sl or 68 as Ableton Live will record all the fader and knob movements into Ableton which after your set you could go back and edit or share with others. This is bananas!

So anyways we will certainly be posting more videos on this setup soon but for now check out the guys from Ableton and Rane explain what they have made so far.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The difference between Serato's different playback modes

Serato Scratch Live has several different playback modes, each with their own purpose. But it seems not many DJ's know the real difference. Whenever I DJ out and work with other DJ's I've noticed many DJ's use Absolute mode, when really they should be using Relative mode. The biggest reason being is if you are in Relative mode and someone bumps your needle the song keeps on playing almost seamlessly. Also you have the ability to setup cue points. These 2 reasons are enough for most to understand why Relative mode trumps Absolute mode, yet I see many DJ's using Absolute mode.... if only they knew..

Friday, January 7, 2011

Creating your own snare drum with Ableton part 1

Using sample packs is fine for some, but have you ever made your very own snare or drum sounds from scratch using Ableton or any DAW for that matter? If you haven't or even if you have this tutorial, which is a 2 parter btw, will show some good methods on how to do this.

Here is part 1 where Nick shows us how it's done. For part 2 visit the link below this video.



Sunday, January 2, 2011

Creating clip variations in Ableton live's clip editor

Today we look at short tutorial by Zettt1981. He shows us some good ways of creating clip variations in Ableton Live by adjusting start and end points, manipulating the transpose as well as adding effects like reverb.