Lost in transit

Oh dear oh dear oh dear …. thought I’d got to grips with the way things are saved in Ableton but popped my project on my memory stick to take it into Beaumont Street on Friday - and lo and behold no audio samples there!!! eeek … need to know how to do this

…. update I’ve learned to ‘collect all and save’ from the file menu to ensure everythings in your set. Then got manage files and a box will appear down the lefthand side. In here you can manage the set and project which will tell you if there are any samples missing - and make a live pack which is a good way of storing your clips and sharing your set or moving it from one computer to another.

Trigger happy

Hurrah - I think I’ve worked out how the main body of my musicalpoem will work - and how I can have both me and Irene in it. I’ve put all Irene’s Qs on one track and all her As on another. Same with mine. They all trigger each other randomly down the tracks. But it’s a big jumble if all four are playing at once - so I’m only going to have two on at once - probably my Qs and Irenes As or My As and Irene’s Qs most of the time (as the answers trigger +two beats more than the Qs, so they don’t overlap too much with them) …. but the world’s my lobster if I dedicate keyboard keys to the track on and off switches - I can have any one track audible, two, three or all four.

I can also trigger the whole main section of my poem by lining up the first clip in each on the same scene and having that on another key to start them all at the same time (NB I must remember before I start playing live to switch two of the channels and off the other two - and I think I need a silent clip in the first ’answer/response’ channel otherwise I will be triggering it the same time as the call (….this comment added afterwards, after playing with the whole random thing - in the end I made the first clips on all but Irene’s call channel silent ones so that there was no danger of me triggering more than one as I started into the verse section) - and my finale first scene will switch them off when I launch it… or I can mute with my keyboard on/off keys (see the buttons below the 7+9 are yellow because they are on, 8+10 are grey because they are off).

I have also created a set of drum loops to trigger randomly  (varying whether they last for 2 - 8 bars mainly depending on how much I like them)  with the spoken/sung words - this means I will be able to concentrate on using effects on the words and drums, playing in sound effects and melodic pieces such as the strings when I perform it.

Does that sound like it will work to you?? (anyone’s welcome to answer but I’m mainly directing that one at my tutor Graham (or anyone who’s in Beaumont street working on their music tech project) - he’s got his class doing this blog thing so he can keep an eye on us from afar - well that’s what I think!) 

ANOTHER DEVELOPMENT - I think the verse piece will go on too long if I incorporate all the calls and responses in just one verse - so I’m going to break it up with a musical chorus and some live spoken lines from me (which I’m also going to do over the intro and finale).

With bells on …

Next job - sound effects - I’m going to use Operator (another of Ableton’s instruments, like Impulse, the drum machine. This is a complicated beast of a synthesizer). I’m going make some bell sounds I’ve found, sound like Weird Wedding Bells-ish … that’s the theory. Then I want some wind sounds and I think I’m going to use Simpler, probably  (one of the other two instruments - and as its name suggest a simpler sampler) to shape what I need.

Shhh I’m in the library

OH NO! Last night I did loads of work on my project - this morning I opened to just listen through what I’d done and my samples were ‘off-line’ - I had to ‘manage samples’ and they finally re-appeared. Some how I’d managed to get two versions saved. But I’ve been exploring how to save things into the library and such and I think I’ve got a much better idea how it’s all stored now. Hopefully ….. anyway I’ve got all my work back (chopped rest of Irene, and my own, voices up warped and named). I’ve got to work out how to store all the excess stuff so it makes the project easier to work on. I’ve got a whole track of stuff I don’t want to throw away but really don’t want on there while I work - I’m looking into this!  I think it means I’ve got to make a patch-work quilt or something …. oh, no a pack not a patch hahaha

Loony Tunes

Then I set out to look for some melody bits. I found a great sound in Ableton’s Library – on the string machine! So I stole those and tweaked the sound – just a little, trying for a more haunting echo-y sound.

 

 

 

Then I played with some note patterns I had found (just as in Impulse really - see blog entry ‘B(l)eating on about rhythms’). I duplicated one pattern – shortened it to one bar  - and then pasted it on the octave higher to give a two-bar theme that kept rising (unlike the original that rose one chord over two bars and looped). I used this one again in the finale with some additional notes to make it fuller (see below). I also clicked in complimenting notes to give a fuller sound to some of the other clips.

 

 

Here’s another from the finale:

 

 

Having got my strings and beats and some fun drum bits for intros or solos or something – I’ll decide what later. I notice that they kind of over power the lovely voice (Irene’s) for my sung parts. I’m going to have to think carefully how they’re going to go together and about the volume levels.

 

I’ve attacked my melodies again and pared them right down to create five minimal tunes that are still related to the main themes, so that I can play in, as and when I want over the spoken/sung lines (I also put a volume envelope on them all and turned them down so I didn’t have to think about their levels when I was playing live. That also meant I didn’t have to put them on their own track and turn that down, I could leave them with the main melody clips - and so any later alterations I may choose to do with the string machine or effects will also effect them).

 

 

Above - the cut down version - below how it was originally.

 

 

Again below a cut down version of another of the main themes 

 

 

I’m probably thinking I’ll have a funky intro using lots of the nice sounds I’ve made/found and ammended. Then go for some beats with the poem triggering itself - then a nice instrumental bit which I can play live and then back to the poem again - and then a finale - preset scenes involving music, beats and some of the lines.

 

I thought that to give the finale a fuller sound it would be nice to have some accompaniement to the string machine sounds and I discovered this (below) - the Grand Section Sustain - after playing with it I ended up with a sort of electric harpsichord sound (haha well that’s just my opinion) - that’s what I called it and again played with the melody to give some harmonies to play in with the existing tunes in the final section.

 

 

 

OH YES! I’ve got my two tracks of poems triggering off nicely (all cut down, warped and renamed) - calls on one track and responses on the other - calls trigger down the track randomly (except one which is a two-part sentence so the first part (which would not work on its own) only triggers its second half, that then triggers randomly, and can be triggered randomly too as a stand alone clip). I’ve got them going off one bar after the previous one finishes. Then on the other track I’ve got the responses basically the same but triggering one bar and two beats after each other - so when I set both tracks going they don’t run at the same time (there’s occassionally a little overlap but that sounds quite good).

 

All I have to work out now is whether I’m going to use my voice as well as Irene’s? I’m thinking it could be in the noisy musical bits as I’ve got a totally different sound to irene and I don’t think the strings drown me out so much … hmm working on this.

 

AND I have made it easier to hear the two when they do run over each other a bit by panning the ‘question/call’ lines to the left a little and the ‘response/answer’ to the right using the panning controls at the bottom of each track.

 

 

See the first circle control above the oblong switches - you can see the line marker is to the left on the left two tracks and to the right on the right two tracks - this is the panning control.

 

 

 

B(l)eating on about rhythms

Meanwhile – while I was waiting to get Irene into the studio I created some beats and fills and other bits and bobs, trying out what might go with the sort of sound I had in mind.

 

I used Impulse (one of Ableton’s instruments – a drum machine basically) and imported some of the preset drum sounds, swapping individuals rather than just using the fixed kit.

 

 

Using the various controls, I tweaked the sounds to get them how I wanted each one to sound and then made adjustments for the overall set. You can pick a drum to play about with by clicking on the pad it’s located on (above the E-Kick is highlighted in grey showing that’s the one that’s being altered). Then I used the start (like attack), stretch (length of sound), transpose (pitch), drive (force, or how hard it’s being hit), decay, volume, frequency and resonance to set each one as I wanted.

 

I also used the pan to set some of the drums slightly to left or right speakers to give the sound some more interest and add a little bit of a ‘live’ feel (to the right).  I left the one shown above centred as it’s the key beat in each bar and represents the kick drum which would be the most central sound.

 

Then there are a set of keys which affect the whole kit, such as overall volume - which are best to tweak once you think you’ve got each individual drum sounding right. I found making nice sounds was great but one of the things to be sure to set right in the context of the whole kit is the volume of each drum.

 

If you find you don’t like one of the drums you are using either in a preset kit or one you’ve put together you can click on the bottom right it’s drum pad and two arrows in a red circle appear - this is ‘hot swap’. Then if you go into the browser and find an alternative you just click it and it jumps right into the slot. You can also hear the sounds of each drum solo or mute one drum you don’t want to hear by using the small rectangles at either side of the play symbol on the individual drum pads (and of course you can use the play symbol to play the drum sound - which you can also do in clip view if you’re wanting to check which sound to add another beat to or something by clicking the headphone symbol at the top of the list of drums (same works for the browser menu) - see screen grabs).

 

Using the record button on one track I recorded in a drum pattern using the computer keyboard. Once it was recorded I clicked on the clip to see the track. Then is quantized the notes (shortcut – Ctrl U), dragging the odd one to the right place if it had jumped out of time (well, where I wanted it to be – I’m sure a drummer may question whether they’re in the ‘right’ place). Then I copied the clip several times (Ctrl D)

 I used the cursor and mouse to amend the different clips to give a selection of patterns based on the original by clicking in some extras hits, on other drums and adding some more of the same,  removing some beats and modifying the length of some of the beats by dragging the block symbol marking them in or out making them longer or shorter. I also used the lollipop stick symbols beneath the beats track to change the velocity of the hits where appropriate.

See the lollipop symbols across the bottom of this image - they are the velocity controls. Here I’ve got one selected (in blue) and you can see the hit it relates to has also turned blue.

I put all the beats variations on one track using the same drums, but I also created some drum fills (see one below): 

 

Then some extra drum bits for highlighted sections like the beginning of the intro or the middle of the chorus (see below):

This one’s ammended from something I found and lots added in - I called the clip ‘bonkers’ as it is a bit!

As you can see above the normal drum loops I used with most of the piece are a little more ‘normal’. Here you can see how it triggers the next clip in the track with the launch section - this one triggers the next after two bars. It must have been used in either the intro, chorus, or finale - in the verse sections the drum loops were set to trigger any other drum loop clip in the track - and the time before triggering depended on how long I’d decided it should play.

Hmm a bit complicated and yet tuneful

 While I’ve been waiting for my singer to come into be recorded I’ve been thinking how this piece is going to play - I’d like the sung lines to trigger each other in a to and fro way (like questions and answers) but they normally only trigger down one track and I’d like them to play randomly - but alternating between the two types of lines at the same time …. Oh yes I forgot mention I’ve written my poem - Bank Holiday Monday laid on the lounge floor plonking out notes to go with the words on my out of tune upright piano. If you’re good I’ll share the words with you later (it’s a diatribe about being a woman …. that’s it boys, I can hear you all switching blogs now - I did warn you I wasn’t doing dance stuff!).

 

IRENE’S ARRIVAL - Irene Pirrera’s a folk singer from Holmfirth with a beautiful voice - I’m very lucky she’s such a good sport to come in and do this for me (she’s doing the digital graphics course that I’m also on and I know she had hoped to get on this course but couldn’t because of the timing so no doubt you’ll be able to read her blog on Ableton when the next course runs.) 

 

I’ve recorded Irene’s voice – she was very patient, I’m sure with her being used to singing ‘proper’ songs, this seemed like somewhat of an experiment – but THANKS VERY MUCH IRENE  - I owe her a drink (a large one).

 

Anyway wiring up and selecting the right mic etc was all something I had to get to grips with but since I have to draw a diagram of how it all went (which will need scanning in) and I cannot add that to the blog right now I shall put in full details later on …

 

Oh yes I promised you the poem words:

 

So this is (real) life … 

Making it right          -  No end in sight

Mother and wife             - No question whose life

Keeping house neatly         -  Tricked so sweetly

Four-wall security            - Birdcage immaturity

Time of your life          -  Echo inside

Tick all the boxes           -  No outside chances (choices)

Flying high                 - False hope cries

Mountains to climb          - Years tick by

No time to think twice          - Barely a life

One of the tribe              - Anyone left inside?

Yes Mrs Jones, I’m doing alright      - Turn out my light

 

(dunno how real musicians do it but I marked out the syllables of each word and gave them a note (or more) each for Irene to sing - plus we improvised a little too during recording.)

 

Now I’ve got all my voice recording in (Irene’s call and response lines, my call and response lines) there’s a lot to chop up and turn into clips.

 

All to be warped and renamed and then I can decide which ones sound best etc, find some effects that may go well with them and probably mess around with some to alter how they play and sound (though I think Irene’s voice sounds too nice to muck about with – maybe I’ll just loop words and things with hers and mess with mine!)

 

THEN I’LL NEED SOME MUSIC !!!!

 

In the beginning there was music tech

I’m doing a music technology course at Beaumont Street Studios in Huddersfield, UK. It’s teaching me to use Ableton Live - a performance programme that folk use mostly for creating and playing back samples in nightclubs and the like. Not being the most musical person it’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but hopefully I’ll be able to create something cool and entertaining at the end. I’m into creative writing, so I decided I’d write a poem and use the lines (sung and spoken) as the core of my piece. Then I’m going to add some rhythm, tunes and sound effects etc. Hopefully it will all knit together making it more than just a poem with music behind it - BUT we’ve got to perform it live using a keyboard to trigger various bits and bobs that we’ve created and all I can say is I think that will be very interesting!!!!

To begin with here’s a few of the basic parts of the programme that you can see in the display:

Clips – a clip holds sa piece of audio or midi sound and information on how that has been edited. It can be copied so a new variation can be made. You can rename and change the colour of the clip appearance to make it easier to organise your project.

A clip (with a play button) and a clip slot (with a stop button - this can be removed - as clips play down the tracks often fired in scenes, see below, if there is a blank clip slot like this in the slot below a clip the stop button will end the playing clip).

Scenes – a scene is a row of clips in midi and audio tracks. There may also be effects in return tracks. These can all be fired at the same time using the scene play button on the righthand side, or brought in individually using the play buttons on the clip

A set – is a group of clips organised into scenes that you can play, for example you may have rhythms, melodies, sound effects etc that work well together and variations of each of those.

 

 

 

Session View:

 

This is the view we have been working in mostly. It shows your clips and the spare slots, the scenes you’ve created and the pan, volume, record, track on/off buttons etc.

 

 

 

 

Arrangement View:

 

This view shows your audio when you haverecorded/are recording a set (using the overall record button along the top of the Ableton display). In here you can edit it again or save the audio out as a .wav file. (Below see the global recording buttons and below that the arrangement view)

 

 

 

 

 

Clip View: When you click on the coloured part of the clip you get to see what is in it with a clip view in the big box at the bottom of the display. This shows the audio, or midi notes, and also various controls such as the launch panel – giving options on how the note is triggered, and the envelope panel which allows you to section off various parts of the clip sounds to be effected, to alter volume, pitch etc. This is also where the warp controls are and loop on/off button. (below is an audio clip in ‘clip view’ - so you can see the controls I’ve cut most of the audio waves off the page - but you can see where they appear - to see this in more detail look at the warping and using envelopes entries).

 

 

I’ve just shown the controls here so they can be made big enough for you to read them:

 

 

Browser View – down the left-hand column of the display is the browser (this can be turned on or off using the triangle symbol at the top left). This allows you to search in Ableton (it’s library, instruments etc) and the whole computer to find audio and effects that you may need. You can also preview sounds using the headphone symbol at the top of the column – when this is on you can click on clips in the browser and they will play there before you drag and drop them into the project.

 

Info View – this is found in a small box at the bottom left of the display. When this is switched on you can hover over most sections or controls in Ableton and the info panel will tell you what they do and sometimes how to operate them, and shortcuts to use.