Sounds Like Now
A blog by saxophonist Brian Sacawa
Archive for Ableton
January 5, 2010 at 2:15 pm · Filed under Ableton, Blog: Winter 09
One of the problems I’ve been attempting to solve while preparing for the upcoming Zodiacrobatic performance was how to change the global tempo in Ableton Live without launching any clips in the next scene. This is important because the piece is a multi-movement work and sometimes there are segues between movements that require quick changes of the global tempo so that clips in the next scene play back at the proper speed. Changing the global tempo by naming a particular scene with the BPM and beat unit (see image below) and then launching the scene is very easy to do.
But until last night I hadn’t figured out a way to change the tempo with a scene launch without having to mute, stop the clips, and then un-mute everything. The solution I came up with was to create an empty scene with same BPM as the next scenes with the clips for the following movements (see image below). So for example, after the Intro which is 80 BPM, there’s a blank scene which is meant to reset the global tempo to 56.5 BPM, the tempo for the Aquarius movement.
Notice that the scene is empty. Click to enlarge.
I realize this is a very specific type of problem and not one that the majority of Live users will ever find themselves having to deal with. (And, now that I’ve discovered it, the solution seems pretty obvious.) But hopefully this might be useful to someone out there.
January 3, 2010 at 8:45 pm · Filed under Ableton, Blog: Winter 09, Zodiac
I must admit that I’m getting too much enjoyment out of making up fun sounds.
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December 11, 2009 at 2:17 pm · Filed under Ableton, Blog: Fall 09
Towards the end of last night’s Zodiacrobatic rehearsal, Erik and I sat down to discuss MIDI mapping for our—well, my—Zodiac Live set. I’d already mapped out my Pisces cadenza with the FCB1010, but Erik said he had a better way. As he explained his method to me, I admit that I was extremely confused, until it dawned on me that his method and my method were different solutions for the same problem.
My method maps all the things I need to do for a specific melody in a single bank. So for example, in the Pisces melody I need to launch clips, scenes, add effects, and use the expression pedals. My solution was to assign all these tasks to switches 1-10 in Bank 01. And when it came time for the next melody, I’d simply scroll to the next bank of switches.
Erik’s method is to create banks that are each assigned to do specific tasks. So Bank 01 might be clip launching/stopping and scene advancing, Bank 02 might be for adding a certain kind of audio effect, Bank 03 might be to arm and deploy the looper, and so on.
Once I got my head around it, Erik’s way seemed extremely logical and made perfect sense. His reasoning for setting up his FCB1010 in this manner is that he’s creating an instrument that can be used across multiple projects. In contrast, my mapping choices were very project-specific. My issues with mapping things as Erik suggested is that it could potentially create some situations in live performance that would require some unnecessarily fancy footwork. Say I’ve got to toggle between Banks 01 and 05 quickly to activate something-or-other while playing some intricate line on the saxophone and then go back down to bank 00?
Obviously, there’s more than one way to skin this cat. I’m interested in what other performers—especially instrumentalists—have found to be the best solution here. Thoughts?
December 11, 2009 at 12:09 am · Filed under Ableton, Blog: Fall 09
I inadvertently unlocked a secret setting in Ableton Live tonight that allows you to create bona fide Milton Babbitt compositions on the spot. Just set a clip’s warp mode to “tone,” assign the clip’s transposition knob to one of the expression pedals on your FCB1010, and voila!
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December 10, 2009 at 11:27 am · Filed under Ableton, Blog: Fall 09, Zodiac
Yesterday I put the finishing touches on my looping cadenza that will connect the “Aqaurius” and “Pisces” melodies in Zodiacrobatic. It took me a little longer to create than I had planned, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
The cadenza will begin towards the end of “Aqaurius” when Erik starts introducing samples of soprano lines I pre-recorded. Using those licks as a jumping off point, I’ll create a frantic, swirling improvisation that begins kind of pointillistically and gets much denser, approaching the perpetual motion figure that will serve as the foundation for the melody. During the improvisation, two multiphonics will be played and subsequently triggered in Live to create a richer texture and the scale will change from the “Aquarius” scale to the scale I use for the “Pisces” melody. (Should I have made a Pisces/scale pun?)
I’ll end the improvisational section with a lick that kicks off the perpetual motion. It’s a 16th-note figure that I record and trigger immediately in Live, adding a second harmony figure on top of it. This forms the loop. With the loop established, I’ll continue to create variations of the material live with the soprano and also by triggering variations within Ableton. It all sounds very oceanic. Once I get bored of doing this, I’ll add a couple of grain delays that sweep the pitch up and trigger the drone that will support the melody:
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After the first time through the melody, I’ll trigger a pre-recorded sample of the accompaniment line, Erik will drop the beat, and we’ll be off. Here’s what the Live set looks like:
November 28, 2009 at 6:59 pm · Filed under Ableton, Blog: Fall 09, Zodiac
Some months ago, when Erik and I were sketching out a basic framework for Zodiacrobatic we kind of drew a blank on what exactly we wanted to do with the Virgo melody and how we wanted the track to sound. Last month, though, Erik hit the nail on the head with this beat layer. Though we had a basic idea for the instrumentation of each melody, when I heard Erik’s beat I immediately thought that a languid, straight-tone, upper register tenor sax would fit perfectly. Here are a couple repetitions of the vibe I imagined:
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November 25, 2009 at 7:51 pm · Filed under Ableton, Blog: Fall 09
I spent the day happily fooling around with Ableton. The original goal du jour was to start roughing out a framework for a looping saxophone cadenza that will segue between the Aquarius and Pisces melodies for our Zodiac project. Nevertheless, I got a little sidetracked and ended up just experimenting a little bit, getting a feel for some of the possibilities within Live. Anyway, here’s what I came up with:
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Geek details: the toy bells and saxophone material came from the Pisces melody; I made up the bassline and drum tracks myself. Not sure if any of the ideas will make it into the final cadenza. I’m simply overwhelmed with the built-in possibilities of the software. I dressed up the saxophone lines with a little compression, and applied a couple beat repeat effects to the bell lines and drum tracks. I recorded the track you hear from the Session view. Gotta start somewhere!
