| Ableton Live | |
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| Developed by | Ableton |
| Latest release | 7. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Ableton AG is a Berlin -based music software company that produces the production and performance suite Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product 0. 7 / May, 2008 |
| Written in | C++ |
| OS | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
| Genre | Digital Audio Workstation |
| Website | www.ableton.com |
Ableton Live is a loop-based software music sequencer for Mac OS and Windows by Ableton. A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. C++ (" C Plus Plus " ˌsiːˌplʌsˈplʌs is a general-purpose Programming language. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Mac OS X (mæk oʊ ɛs tɛn is a line of computer Operating systems developed marketed and sold by Apple Inc, the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use A digital audio workstation (DAW is an electronic system designed to record, edit and play back digital audio A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages In Electronic music, a loop is a sample which is repeated Loops may be repeated through the use of Tape loops delay effects cutting between A music sequencer (also MIDI sequencer or just sequencer) is software or hardware designed to create and manage computer-generated music Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of Graphical user interface -based Operating systems developed by Apple Inc Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Ableton AG is a Berlin -based music software company that produces the production and performance suite Ableton Live and a collection of related instruments The latest major release of Live, Version 7, was released in November 2007. Unlike other software sequencers, Live is designed around the notion of being as much an instrument for live performances as a tool for composing and arranging. A music sequencer (also MIDI sequencer or just sequencer) is software or hardware designed to create and manage computer-generated music A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making Music. A performance, in Performing arts, generally comprises an event in which one group of people (the performer or performers behave in a particular way for another group of people A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance In Music, an arrangement refers either to a rewriting of a piece of existing Music with additional new material or to a fleshing-out of a compositional sketch such [1]
Contents |
History
Ableton Live is written in C++ with the first version released in 2001 as a commercial piece of software. C++ (" C Plus Plus " ˌsiːˌplʌsˈplʌs is a general-purpose Programming language. Contrary to popular belief, Live was not prototyped in Max/MSP, although it was used to model some of the audio devices. Max is a graphical Development environment for Music and Multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco -based software company Cycling The German Company "Ableton AG" is run by Gerhard Behles (CEO), formerly a member of Monolake, and Bernd Roggendorf (CTO), its original founders, and Jan Bohl COO/CFO). Monolake is an Electronic music act based in Berlin. Originally consisting of members Gerhard Behles and Robert Henke Monolake is now perpetuated by Henke while [2]
Features
Much of Live's unique interface comes from being designed to use in live performance as well as for production. As such the interface is more compact than most sequencers and clearly designed for use on a single screen. There are few pop up messages or dialogs. Portions of the interface are hidden and shown based on arrows which may be clicked to show or hide a certain segment (e. g. to hide the instrument/effect list or to show or hide the help box).
Views
There are two views which are central to Live – the arrangement view and the session view. The session is primarily used to organize and trigger sets of sounds called clips. These clips may be arranged into scenes which may be triggered as a unit. For instance a drum, bass and guitar track might comprise a single scene. The drum is a member of the percussion group technically classified as a Membranophone. The electric bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; ˈbeɪs as in "base" is a Stringed instrument played primarily with the The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles When moving on to another portion of the composition – a new scene – some or all of those parts might differ and could be triggered in parallel. In Live 6, there is also the addition of "racks" which allow the user to easily group instruments and effects.
The other view is the arrangement view, which is used for recording tracks from the session view and further manipulating their arrangement and effects. This view is fairly similar to a traditional software sequencer interface.
Clips may either be an audio sample or MIDI (triggering one of Live's built in instruments, third party VSTs instruments or external hardware). In Music, sampling is the act of taking a portion or sample, of one Sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording Live comes by default with two instruments – Impulse and Simpler.
Instruments
Built-In
- Impulse is a more or less traditional drum sequencing instrument which allows for defining a kit of up to eight drum sounds. There are a number of options available for preprocessing these samples such as basic equalization, attack, decay, pitch shift, etc. Once the kit is defined these samples are arranged into groups of measures using a piano-roll interface.
- Simpler is a relatively easy to use sampling instrument. In Music, sampling is the act of taking a portion or sample, of one Sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording It is based on working with a single sample, applying preprocessing and then arranging it in a piano roll interface. Digital signal processing ( DSP) is concerned with the representation of the signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals A piano roll is the music Storage medium used to operate the Player piano, pianola or a Reproducing piano. In this case, rather than the notes representing different samples as in Impulse, the samples are pitch shifted to the selected note.
Add-On
There are a number of additional instruments which may be purchased separately or as part of the Ableton Suite. [3]
- Sampler is an enhanced sampler. A sampler is an electronic musical instrument closely related to a Synthesizer.
- Operator is an FM synthesizer. A 220 Hz carrier tone modulated by a 440 Hz modulating tone with
- Electric is an electric piano instrument. An electric piano is an electric Musical instrument. The popularity of the electric piano began to grow in the late 1960s, reaching its greatest height during the
- Tension is a string physical modelling synthesiser. In Sound synthesis, physical modelling synthesis refers to methods in which the Waveform of the Sound to be generated is computed by using a Mathematical
- Analog simulates an analog synthesizer. An analog synthesizer is a Synthesizer that uses analog circuits and Analog computer techniques to generate sound electronically
- Drum Machines is a collection of emulators for classic drum machines. For the early "drum machine" computers that used a rotating cylinder as their main memory see Drum memory A drum machine is an
- Session Drums is a collection of sampled drum and percussion instruments.
- Essential Instruments Collection is a large collection of acoustic and electric instrument samples.
Effects
Most of the effects are fairly familiar effects in the digital signal processing world which have been adapted to fit Live's interface. For the album by The Jam see Sound Affects. Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced Sounds Digital signal processing ( DSP) is concerned with the representation of the signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals They are however fairly obviously tailored for the target audience of Live – electronic musicians and DJs – rather than, say, post processing a guitar rig. Electronic Musician is a monthly Magazine published by Prism Business Media featuring articles on Synthesizers, Music production and A disc jockey (also known as DJ or deejay) is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience
The audio effects shipped with Live (version 6) are:
- Auto Filter
- Auto Pan
- Beat Repeat
- Chorus
- Compressor I
- Compressor II
- Dynamic Tube
- EQ Eight
- EQ Three
- Erosion
- Filter Delay
- Flanger
- Gate
- Grain Delay
- Phaser
- Ping Pong Delay
- Saturator
- Simple Delay
- Redux
- Resonators
- Reverb
- Utility
Additionally there are a handful of MIDI-only effects including arpeggiator, chord, pitch, random, scale, and velocity. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers In more recent versions Live is also able to use VST and Audio Unit (AU) effects. Steinberg 's Virtual Studio Technology (VST is an interface for integrating software Audio Synthesizer and effect Plugins with Audio Units ( AU) are a system-level Plug-in architecture provided by Core Audio
Working with audio clips
In addition to the instruments mentioned above, Live can work with samples. Live attempts to do beat analysis of the samples to find their meter, number of bars and the number of beats per minute. Meter or metre is a concept related to an underlying division of time characteristic of western music Beats per minute ( BPM) is a unit typically used as either a measure of Tempo in music or a measure of one's Heart rate. This makes it possible for Live to shift these samples to fit into loops that are tied into the piece's global tempo. 2266-Tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl or TEMPO is the Chemical compound with the formula (CH23(CMe22NO
Additionally Live's Time Warp feature can be used to either correct or adjust beat positions in the sample. By setting warp markers to a specific point in the sample, arbitrary points in the sample can be pegged to positions in the measure. For instance a drum beat that fell 250 ms after the midpoint in measure may be adjusted so that it will be played back precisely at the midpoint.
Some artists and online stores now make available mp3 files that are pre-adjusted, with tempo information and warp markers added. The mp3 file or files are accompanied with a file in Live's native format.
Envelopes
Almost all of the parameters in Live are controlled by envelopes which may be drawn either on clips and will be used in every performance of that clip or into the arrangement so that they vary at different points in the playback of a composition. The most obvious examples are volume or track panning, but these are also used in Live to set things like the root note of a resonator or the delay time or feedback amount for a delay effect. Essentially these map to most of what would be a knob on an effect in a traditional audio processing rack and in fact they may be mapped to knobs on MIDI controllers. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers
Live LE
As of Live 4, Ableton also offers a stripped-down version of Live targeted at the non-professional market. It has limitations on the number of audio inputs, effects used and does not feature some of the synchronization (MIDI Clock, ReWire) of the full version. ReWire is a Software protocol, jointly developed by Propellerhead and Steinberg, allowing remote control and data transfer among Digital audio editing The current Live LE version is 7. 0. [4]
See also
- Music sequencer
- Digital audio workstation
- Category:Ableton Live users
External links
- Ableton's Official Website
- Unofficial Ableton Live user forum
- Collection of video-based Live tutorials
- Unofficial Ableton Live Wiki
References
- ^ Ableton - Ableton Live 7
- ^ http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=280887#280887 Live prototyping explained by Live co-creator Robert Henke
- ^ Ableton - Ableton Suite
- ^ Ableton - Live 6 LE
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