I’ve decided to design the kick drum in Ableton using Operator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve created a new MIDI track and loaded an Operator device from the browser.

Created a one-bar MIDI clip and put a C3 on every quarter-note. It sounded dull.

Then I’ve changed the way that Operator routes the signals. From the Global control section, at the top, I’ve chosen the rightmost diagram (four horizontal squares) to change Operators routing to Additive. This lets me use four independent oscillators (with no frequency modulation) that I could layer to create a richer Kick sound.

To start , first I’ve set all the oscillators to Fixed to make the frequency of each to be independent.

I’ve set the Oscillator A ’s Frequency to 50 Hz, Attack to 12 ms, Decay to 300 ms and Sustain to the lowest possible (-inf dB).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve used the Oscillator B like so- Freq. 94 Hz, Attack 0.0 ms, Decay 100 ms and shifted the Phase 5% to cause the  clicking sound. I’ve had to bring the level up because of its -inf. as a default.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve set the third oscillator waveform to Sw3 (a saw wave) and adjusted the envelope settings- Freq. 42 Hz, Attack 25 ms, Decay 600 ms, Sustain -inf. also ringed the level up to -16dB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To add more punch and character to the kick I’ve set the Pitch Env parameter to 15%. To prevent the pitch envelope from modulating Oscillator C- the body of the sound, I’ve removed Oscillator C from the Dest.A section of the pitch envelope.

 

 

 

 

 

Analog-sounding bass with the Operator

 

I’ve dropped an Operator device to a new MIDI track in Live. To help myself to visualize the changes I was going to make I’ve dragged  a Spectrum audio effect after Operator in the chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the global controls section I’ve decided to go for ‘three on one” schematic which means that Oscillator A (audible oscillator) will be modulated by oscillators B,C, and D. Also because I was about creating mono bass sound I’ve changed the number of Voices to 1 and set the volume to 0dB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Oscillator I’ve selected  the Sine wave- mostly for sub-bass information. Changed the Course to 0.5 to tune the oscillator to the lowest octave possible. I’ve set the Attack to 0.35 ms, Decay to 3.00s. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Added Oscillator B to add more harmonics to the timbre. Changed the waveform to Sine 4- a retro style (C64), set Coarse to 0.5 and bring up the level to -25 dB, Fine to 8 to fatten up the sound by detuning the modulator, Attack 2.87 ms, Release to 3.00 ms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the Oscillator C, I’ve used a harmonically richer waveform,  Saw D (D stands for Digital), which is particularly good for bass design. I’ve set Attack to 200 ms, Release to 3000 ms, Fine to 10 and bring the Level up to -35 dB. This detuning caused more movement-

                                 

 

 

                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve used Oscillator D to add some excitement to the timbre during longer sustaining notes.

I’ve picked up Saw D waveform and set a long Attack 80 ms, Release 10 s., Coarse to 2, Fine to 5 and Level -40dB. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I’ve used the pitch envelope generator to imbue the sound with more punch and attack. Changed the pitch envelope parameter to 60% and stopped the envelope from affecting oscillators B,C, and D using Dest.A section and also set Peak to +30 stand Decay to 200 ms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By setting the Spread to 15% I’ve added some stereo width.

To control the Hi end from receiving too many high harmonics I’ve brought the Tone down to 55%.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve added filter  modulation at the end. I’ve turned on the LFO and set its Rate to 65, Amount to 45%, long Attack, and short release. De-assigned the LFO from all the oscillators and assigned it to Filter in Dest.A section. with  Freq. the value of 8kHz and Resonance of 5. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Designing ambient pads using Operator.

 

I’ve  added Operator on a new MIDI track in Live. From the global section on the bottom I’ve chosen to use algorithms, that has two carriers and two modulators. This means Oscillator A and Oscillator C are going to be audible signals, and they’ll be modulated by Oscillator B and Oscillator D respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Firstly I am going to create a sustained pad sound. Oscillator A’s is going to Attack on 6.00 s. and Release at 10.0 s. and it’s a Square4 waveform. To add some unison using Oscillator B. I am bringing up its Level to -35dB and detune it by setting Fine to 10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding second sound by setting Oscillator C’s waveform to Sin 8- a retro sine wave that has more character than a more ‘hi-res’ sine wave. I’ve set its Coarse to 3, Attack to 0.92 ms, Decay to 1.20 s and Sustain to -inf. dB. Given it a level of -4 dB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Operator is able to loop envelopes and I am making a use of it (isn’t that amazing?).

I've selected Oscillator C’s tab, clicked on Loop, select Beat and set the Repeat parameter to 1/6. The effect is particularly interesting when I play several delayed notes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding some harmonics to the second sound for more character.

I am setting the Oscillator D’s waveform to a triangle, setting up Coarse to 2, Fine to 5 and its Level up to -35 dB. This adds some higher harmonics to our bell sound and it helps in giving more brightness to the sound in higher octaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve set the Spread to 40% for some stereo width and ringed the master Volume to -17 dB to prevent clipping. I’ve added a Reverb Effect after Operator, setting its Decay Time to 6.00 s and DRY/wet to 30%.  The sound’s effect is best brought out by slowly introducing sustained notes from different octaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creating fat sawtooth chords with Operator (Ableton Live)

 

 

 

To create a lead chord sound, I’ve opened a new instance of Operator using the additive algorithm. This mean I will have four  independent (show horizontally) audible oscillators without frequency modulation. I’ve also set Voices to 1 for a monophonic sound. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve chosen Sw32- a sawtooth wave with 32 harmonics- for every Oscillator. I’ve bring the Level of each oscillator up to 0.0dB. and set the global Transpose value to -12st. This transposes the whole patch one octave lower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To generate a chord I’ve set Oscillator B’s Fine to 198 cents (a major second),

Oscillator C’s to 500 cents ( a fourth) and Oscillator D’s to 790 cents (a minor sixth). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the filter section, I’ve set Freq. to 1.00kHz and Res to 3.00. I’ve set 10.0s for the Filter Envelope’s Attack, 4.00s for the Decay time and Sustain at 30%. To apply the envelope to the filter, I’ve set the Envelope parameter to 40%. This opens the filter slowly, resulting in an evolving sound-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Pitch section,I’ve turned on Glide by clicking on the yellow button marked G and set its Time parameter to 100 ms. This slides the pitch between overlapping notes. Setting the Spread to 100% result in a richer stereo sound by detuning the left and right signal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lead patch was ok, but some effect processing helped to achieve a more interesting result. I’ve applied Reverb effect after Operator. I’ve set its Decay Time to 4.00 s and Dry/Wet to 40%. The result is a smoother sound, especially after the release stage as a longer tail to the sound was added

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting Up a new session (#3)

 

I've copied  the stems for the Remix competition. I've listen to the whole song in a fresh session in Ableton Live 9. I've listened to every track in SOLO mode. I liked few parts and decided that I'm going to exploit them. I've split the tracks and created a bunch of clips, than created new Clips Library for this project. I've liked the entire Lead Vocal so I've exported it as a whole track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've  used the Midi keyboard to record : 

Pad, Squeak (Lead) with the Chords Effect and Holy Scale chain for Bbm scale,

Drum Pads for Drum Racks :

Kit-Core 808- main beat, second Drum Rack for Hi-Hats, and another one for Tambourines.

 

I've created 4 Audio tracks for the Lead vocal which I've sliced up for the 1st. verse, 2nd., 3rd. and the chorus. I've than also dedicated an Audio Tracks for the copy of  that Vocals which I've than Timestreached to the maximum value and edit Volume using Envelope Clip Editor to make effective vocal fills which would be locked in the tempo.

 

I've used the Complex Pro

Warp Mode for Lead Vocals,

and Beats for background to get more grainy type of feel between them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editing and Recording

 

I've written volume automation for the vocal tracks: Background Vocals Verse 1,2,3 + Chorus,

grouped the Drum Tracks and tuned the Bass Drum to the key of Bbminor aka A sharp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be able to do so I had to:

Double click on Drum Rack Trigger (Kick 808) in my case than when the sampler appeared  I had to select Controls nextt to Sample and that would open Transpose and Detune options. I decreased the Bass Drum by 10 semitones and 28cents.

 

I've come up with the bass line using Vintage Upright MS from Live sound library which I tuned to my taste. I've also adjusted stereo spread to make the bass more wide, added a bit longer Release time and set the Low Frequency Cut Off on 2.89kHz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reversing Audio: 

Building up sound of backward Crash by using Sample  window is pretty easy to do 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it has its function it he track but to be a bit more creative I've reversed  bounced to Wave section, which than I've implement into bridge, added Hi Pass Filtering recorded automation using Auto Filter and Frequency Cut Off function mapped to the controller. It created kind of an analog record rewind effect.

Revers and the Filter Sweep goes from 7.3kHz into 28Hz  frequency wise and last through 1bar (16 1/4notes).

 

 

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Scenes and Timeline

 

I took  AKAI MPC mini dedicated Live's launchpad to Record my performance as I decided on what my scenes going to be based. Setting up of this midi controller didn't required any configuration. But if we curious of how it's set up, we can go to Live-> Preferences-> MIDI and we will find the device under Control Surface window.

 

My session contains 16 scenes, 21 Tracks (13 Audio, 7 MID TracksI) and 3 Groups (Drums, Tambourines and Basses).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The song has been Recorded.

 

Connecting DJ setup

 

Output signal from DJ mixer was routed by pair of unbalanced RCA cables into Mixer-Interface ( Behringer UFX1204) stereo channel line inputs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Converted to 44100 Hz 24bit resolution 

digital Information signal was send into the Computer via Firwire connection extended by Firewire with Thunderbolt adaptor.

 

Recording Roland TR-8

 

It wasn't that hard to root the channels from TR-* sequencer to recieve signal in Ableton session. The trick is to download the drivers from Roland web site and you're ready to go. The biggest suprise was that all seperate channels are avaible from the TR-8 audio built inn interface automaticly assign to instruments in order what makes the channels easy to find and we don't need to track the recordings we can record all of them at the same time. Roland TR-8 also sync's easily with his partners like Roland GAIA synthesizer by simple usb/midi conection and let us to trigger all the connected equipment from it's board as it provides the SYNC function.