How to create a soft synth preset chain in Ableton’s Sampler
How to create a soft synth preset chain in Ableton’s Sampler
Over the last month I’ve been working on an Ableton Master Template that allow me to make songs probably 5-10 times faster. It puts everything I need at my fingertips instantly. Don’t worry, I plan on making it available to you as well once it’s ready to launch, so stay tunes for that!
In this process, I found myself transferring soft synth presets to Sampler. This has several benefits.
1. I have one spot where I can have my favorite presets instead of having to hunt through synths.
2. This allows me to use PC only or Mac only soft synth sounds on both formats.
3. There will never be a problem sharing my song files with those who don’t have the same 3rd party plugins, which will be helpful for collaborations & remixes.
4. A more uniformed set of macro controls, so I don’t have to take time learning how each synth works.
Certainly there are synth characteristics & idiosyncracies that won’t always translate into Sampler, but when in songwriting mode, this will help you focus on writing and finishing tracks instead of learning every synth in your arsenal.
This video below walks you through the process for building preset chains in Sampler for quick access to your soft synth sounds. Enjoy!
Follow up Video:
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
Massive tip for assigning Macros in Ableton
Assigning macros to siblings
If you’ve ever attempted to assign macro knobs to all the samples in Ableton’s Drum Racks or Sampler, you know that assigning 8 parameters to each or your 100 or so samples, you know that this is easily a full day of torturous & tedious work. This is a tip you’re most certainly going to want to share. You’ll be an instant lifesaver!
Today you will learn how to do a day’s work in minutes with a simple right click option that is not currently available in Ableton. Watch the video below & download the file if you need it.
You can located the .txt file at the paths below:
Mac OS X: /User/Library/Preferences/Ableton/Live 8.*.* (whichever version you have)
Windows Vista/Win7: c:/users/username/appdata/roaming/ableton/live/preferences/
Windows XP & previous(Live 4 and later versions): C:/Documents and Settings/yourusername/Application Data/Ableton/Live/Preferences
Right Click and download the text file below
(if needed)
Options txt file
For more coding options, go here
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
How to humanize your drums in Ableton
How to humanize your drums in Ableton
Below is a quick video walkthrough to help take your drums from sounding repetitive & machine like to something that sounds much more dynamic, human & live. The tools you’ll need are Ableton’s Drum Racks & Sampler instruments. This should give you much better results in your song’s rhythm & make for a more pleasurable listening experience. Adding the human element is important in all genres of music, so don’t sleep on this tip. Enjoy!
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
Interested in Learning Logic or Reason?
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
A simple but rarely used songwriting & arrangement technique
A simple but rarely used songwriting & arrangement technique
This is a songwriting technique that I almost didn’t want to write about. It’s so silly and obvious that I thought I might be the only person to find use with it. As I pondered it for a few days, this technique became more and more intriguing as a way to get ideas down and arranged quickly.
A common problem people have with songwriting is sound design, programming & arrangement. This is because you constantly have to get out of your flow to try to dial in an idea. Often times this leads to you forgetting what you were trying to do in the first place. Once you’ve forgotten your original inspiration, everything you do from there is a bit of a shot in the dark.
If only you could lay down all your ideas in realtime without having to stop & lose your flow.
I’d like to help you do that.
Hum it out
Instead of going directly to your favorite drum kit & synth presets & trying to get things dialed in, how about laying down a blueprint first. What I suggest is you put some headphones on & get a mic (or use your computer’s internal mic). It doesn’t have to be great, so don’t sweat looking for the perfect one. Next tap out the tempo of the idea in your head.
Turn on the metronome, hit record on a track and beatbox/hum your song idea into the mic to the click track in your headphones. Try to record your song idea as one take even if you don’t have it all worked out. You’ll find that when you get into this flow, ideas just come to you. It’ll be like you’re making it up as you go along. You’ll naturally create little variations, breaks, drum fills & interesting edits. It’s ok to overdub over certain parts later, but just get a rough idea.
Now, you’re probably thinking this is ridiculous, but stick with me. What makes this incredibly useful is that after the end of this exercise you’ll actually have a structured song idea with breaks that aren’t forced because you put them there when they felt “right”. You may have even come up with more clever rhythms & tweaks because you weren’t limited by technology.
Another advantage is that there are only so many parts you can hum at once. You are mainly going to get “impressions” of the idea in your head instead of a perfectly accurate depiction. This will also tell you the most important parts in each section so you can keep things interesting without overloading your song with too much stuff.
Feel free to add another voice layer to fill in some details if you like. I’d imagine myself starting with drums and bass & then let it go wherever it takes me. You’ll naturally be humming the most “stand out” element of your song idea as you go.
Once you’ve gone through this process, you’ll have a clear path to follow as you dive in to the more technical parts of creating your song without getting lost. You’ll be able to now take the time to perfect your sounds in confidence. I think you’ll find that different (and typically better) ideas come to you in real time instead of with you poking in midi notes, trying to come up with that perfect drum fill.
Of course you don’t have to stick with your original idea, but it still always helps to have a rough blueprint. Happy accidents will still naturally come, so don’t worry too much about that. The songwriting process now will just be matching the sounds in the computer to the sounds you had in your head using your “hum” track as a reference.
Until the computer is able to take ideas straight out of your head, this is the best I can offer.
I’d love to hear how this approach works for some of you who might be struggling.
Happy Music Making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
Interested in Learning Logic or Reason?
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
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