Effectively processing!

Setting up an effect:

I have chosen Reverb because I want to add some ambience to my spoken and sung lines.

Reverb is an effect because it works in send and return mode – you can see this because it has a dry/wet control. This controls the amount of original sound (dry) and effected sound (wet) that is heard.

To set up an effect in send and return mode:

1 Create a new return track.

2 Select the chosen effect from the Ableton audio effects list in the menu

3 Drag to the new return track and then to the space along the bottom for audio effects

4 Set the dry/wet channel fully to wet (as you will hear the original sounds/words from the track the clip is on.

5 Then play some of the clips to be effected altering the relevant return control on that track to see how much of the effect is appropriate.

6 You could also alter the settings of the reverb if you were not happy with the presets. 

Applying an effect using envelopes:  

I have also used a simple delay on my sung lines. This is also an effect and is set up as above.

In this case though I wanted it to affect different clips in different ways so I decided to apply clip envelopes. To do this I had to set up the effect and then turn up the return control on the track fully on. Then I went into each clip, created an envelope based on the send controller (when you go to the clip envelopes the last thing you altered will be there ready to use, otherwise you will have to select it from the drop down menu) and I turned it to zero on each. Then I went back to each clip and brought up the envelope where I thought it was appropriate (in this case over specific words rather than the whole clip) -see below.

Here are some more screen grabs to show where the controls etc are when setting up effects:

Above are the send controls to determine how much of the effected sound you allow through. 

 

Here’s the browser showing where to get the effects and processors from - the audio effects list.

 

Here’s the reverb in place.

 
And this is a new return channel. You can also see the send controls at the bottom, just the same as on the audio tracks. 

Setting up a processor:

I needed to apply some compression and an equalizer to my vocals as they had been performed live. The intention was to take off a tinny sound on some of the clips and make them all stand out against the music, beats and sound effects. I wanted the compressor to even out some of the sound.

Processors are applied to the track on which the clips are. I selected the processors from the Ableton effects menu then dragged them to the track and into the effects box at the bottom, placing the EQ Eight first and Compressor I second.

Then I altered the equalizer by selected the high and low markers and using the tailing off curve for each moving them in and out as the clip was playing to find the right sound.

Then I worked on the compression by setting the attack to zero and leaving the release where it had been set automatically. I put the ration to about 4 and then worked on the threshold until I saw the Gain Reduction registering – showing that some compression was being applied. I worked my way through the clips on the track and found a level which made the clips sound good (tweaking the ratio a little as I went). I then brought up the attack a little to preserve the start of the vocals and individual words. I then compared the uncompressed and compressed sounds to set the volume back to approximately how it was before I affected the sound.