I thought I’d finally get around to reading the Ableton Reference
Manual. Here are some notes on things I learned, chapter by chapter.
Keyboard shortcuts use Mac notation.
Since these are my personal notes, I’m mostly writing things down
because I didn’t already know them, or to summarize a bunch of facts at
once. I skipped several sections wholesale (where I didn’t think I’d get
much value out of them), and even in the sections I did take notes on,
I’ve likely skipped over some things you might not know. So, if you find
helpful things in here, I’d recommend reading the manual yourself to
discover even more.
1. Welcome to Live
Just some updates about what’s new in this version. I’ll mention some
of them later as they come up.
2. First Steps
⌘⇧W opens a second window (can
split across monitors). My initial favorite way to use this is to have
Arrangement View and Device View on one screen and Clip View full-size
on another. Seeing clips and the device they relate to at the same time
is great.
3. Authorizing Live
Authorization, pretty boring.
4. Live Concepts
The mixer has a crossfader (View > Crossfader) that
lets you A/B across multiple tracks at once.
The quantization chooser lets you pick when launch quantization
happens
Clip envelopes can be unlinked from clips, then selected
independently
5. Managing Files and Sets
Packs that are available but not installed show up under Packs for
install
Esc clears the search field
Press Q to hot-swap
Decoded sample files are cached; it’s possible to change cache
settings to preserve free disk space etc. (but I’ve never had to)
Render stems quickly with
Include Return and Master Effects
Invoke two rendering passes with Render as Loop—effects
bleed over to the start of the loop
Normalize renders with peak amplitude at max,
eliminating headroom (wish I’d known this earlier, would definitely have
turned it on)
You can export video! (and apparently arrange video clips along with
audio tracks)
6. Arrangement View
⌘⌥ and drag to pan
Double click the beat-time ruler to snap zoom to current
selection
Revert to a previous zoom by pressing X. This works
multiple times (like undo)
⌥ and scroll vertically to zoom a track
fn← or double-clicking the stop button jumps
to beat 1.1.1
⇧space plays from the last-stopped position
instead of from the insert marker
Add info text (notes) to a locator with a ⌃ click
⌘ and arrow up/down to double/halve loop brace
length
⌥⇧ and drag a clip’s wave or midi to move clip
contents within clip bounds
Declicking fades of 4ms turn on with the
Record/Warp/Lanuch Preferences > Create Fades on Clip Edges
option. I had noticed these fades before (e.g. when they would remove
the clickiness of a super clicky kick) but didn’t know they could be
turned off.
U folds and unfolds a track
Reversing in an audio track operates on a selection; it
doesn’t matter whether there are multiple clips
⌘1 doubles grid density
⌘2 halves grid density
⌘3 turns on triplet mode
⌘4 turns off grid snapping
⌘5 toggles fixed or adaptive grid mode
Linking tracks lets you edit them simultaneously
7. Session View
There are a lot of features I didn’t know about in Session View, but
I rarely touch it so didn’t go too deep here.
⌥ while resizing a track will resize all tracks
Scenes have tempo and time signature individually configurable, drag
left on the master track to show this
Scenes have “Follow Actions”
8. Clip View
Double-click the title bar to minimize a panel
⌥1 switches to Audio/Notes
⌥2 switches to Envelopes
⌥3 switches to Note Expression
The little box next to the clip title (de)activates the clip
The Z/X zoom/reset keys work for clips as
well
Grooves are hot-swappable
Grooves come with a “commit” button that rewrites the clip and
removes that groove
Save clip settings along with a sample as “default clip”
Clips can send custom bank change/program messages
RAM mode controls whether audio is pre-loaded or read from disk
Not sure exactly what this means, but the new Hi-Q algorithm
provides up to ~19 semitones transposition before aliasing becomes
audible
Type a note name in the midi Transpose slider to set the lowest note
(or use - before the note name to set the highest)
There’s a randomize button (with range) as well as a velocity range
baked into the midi Notes tab
9. Audio Clips, Tempo, and
Warping
The vertical line buttons near the set tempo are called Phase Nudge
Up/Down
Hold ⌘ while creating a warp marker from a transient will
create warp markers at adjacent transients
Holding ⇧ while moving a pseudo warp marker moves the
marker itself (not the waveform)
Can auto-warp a selected part of a larger sample
Warp From Here runs auto-warp forwards in time from the starting
marker
Straight warp provides a single warp marker based on the file’s
tempo
Warp X BPM From Here warps to a single warp marker, with a pre-set
tempo
Warp markers work across multi-selected clips
Warp modes work via granular resynthesis—repeating or skipping
grains of the sample
Loop Forward and Loop Back-and-Forth transient loop modes both
search for zero-crossings near the middle of a segment to loop from
Transient Envelope is just a volume fade with different timing
Tones Mode works well for basslines and monophonic instruments
Texture Mode’s Grain Size differs from Tones Mode in that Live uses
the setting as-is
Fluctuation adds some randomness
Re-Pitch is a playback rate adjustment
Complex Mode takes about 10x the CPU as prior warp modes
Complex Pro’s Envelope may work better with low envelope at high
frequencies, and vice versa
REX Mode is a thing
10. Editing MIDI Notes and
Velocities
There’s a thing called the Chance Editor Lane/Probability Lane
⌥ toggles draw mode between free-hand melodic drawing and
single-key-track-locked drawing
Toggle scale highlighting with K
The piano roll has a setting for sharps/flats notation
Notes will snap to an additional offset from the original position
of the note relative to the grid (preserving original groove)
Draw linear velocity changes in Draw Mode by holding ⌥
and drawing in the Velocity Editor
Draw mode lets you draw notes and velocities at the same time while
holding ⌘
Hold ⌘ and drag a velocity marker vertically to adjust
velocity range. Double-click the marker to reset to 0 range
Note-off velocity is supported via context menu
Note stretch markers scale notes in time (and appear when a time
range is selected)
Crop Clip to delete midi outside the loop brace
You can view/edit notes from multiple midi clips at the same time!
Not sure how I didn’t discover this already
Press N while multi-clip editing to enter Focus Mode.
This allows seeing all midi at once, but focusing on editing that of a
single clip
11. Editing MPE
I don’t use midi polyphonic expression often, but this chapter was
still interesting.
Clip View’s Note Expression tab lets you adjust Pitch, Slide,
Pressure, Velocity, and Release Velocity dimensions of MPE
Use expression lanes to control these dimensions. Except, Pitch
appears on notes themselves
Set exact values with right-click, Edit Value
Draw mode seems like a good fit for natural expression
12. Converting Audio to MIDI
Slice to midi divides an audio sequence into midi notes by length of
time. It creates a drum rack with each chromatic note triggering a
Simpler
Convert Harmony/Melody to new midi track can grab the notes from an
audio clip—works well for changing instruments/sound design. (Convert
Melody especially seems like an easy way to convert improved
singing/humming to midi)
Convert Drums also seems to work okay with my (terrible) beatboxing,
which opens up a more free-form creative flow
13. Using Grooves
Quantize operates pre-groove
Groove sliders allow negative velocities, which has an inversion
effect
There’s a Global Groove Amount Slider
Grooves with only Quantize (and Base) applied can do non-destructive
quantization
On a doubling, groove randomness applied to one track out of two can
make the double more realistic
14. Launching Clips
More session view stuff, so more skimming.
Launch Mode chooser allows Trigger, Gate, Toggle, Repeat on an
event
Lots of discussion of Follow Actions in here
15. Routing and I/O
Switching monitoring to In makes the Activator blue
Routing a stereo track to mono output adds left and right signals
and attenuates by 6 dB
When playing midi from computer keyboard, Z and
X adjust octave, C and V adjust
velocity by chunks of 20
Send midi and return audio in one track with the External Instrument
device
Setting an audio track to Resampling means it’s routed to from
Master output, but doesn’t output while resampling
Many-to-one: route from (changing “Audio To”). One-to-many: route to
(changing “Audio From”). Instrument layering is one-to-many (midi to
instrument tracks, e.g.)
Rack return chains can have internal routing
16. Mixing
The Session mixer has peak level indicators, a preview volume
setting, and tick marks
Live’s internal audio engine has “enormous” amounts of headroom
beyond 0 dB, but e.g. playing these signals over an actual output device
does cause clipping
Return tracks have a Pre/Post switch for whether mixing happens
before or after
The crossfader has a bunch of different crossfade curves (context
menu)
Turning off Solo in Place means soloing happens without return track
output
Device delay compensation is on by default
17. Recording New Clips
Most external devices (microphones, guitars) aren’t at line level,
so need a preamp
Hold ⇧ with the record button to change whether it starts
immediately or waits for the play button, then starts
Midi clips allow for overdubbing (recording on top of what already
exists). This is the plus sign button next to the record button
Midi step recording is possible independent of track timing: arm the
track and use the right arrow key to jump along the grid
The mixer’s Preview Volume adjust metronome volume
The metronome has a setting to enable it only while recording
The capture midi button captures what was just played on armed midi
tracks (if e.g. you forget to record)
18. Comping
Record multiple takes and pick between the versions
⌘⌥U or click Show Take Lanes in
track header context menu
⇧⌥T to insert a take lane
⌥+ and ⌥- resize take
lanes vertically
T to audition a take lane, then Enter to copy
selected material to the main lane
19. Working with
Instruments and Effects
Saving a device’s settings in the Defaults folder will
make it load as the new default for that device
Live shows up to the first 64 parameters for a plugin, otherwise you
can configure which ones show up yourself
Hold ⌘ when opening a new plugin window to keep existing
plugin windows open
⌘⌥P to show/hide open plugin
windows
Some plugins support sidechaining, which shows up in a panel on the
left
Apparently VSTs can support a bank of presets Live can pick up, but
I don’t recall using many plugins that actually do this
20. Instrument, Drum, and
Effect Racks
Press - or + to fold or unfold a rack
Auto Select selects chains from the chain list based on drum input
midi or instrument/effect zones
Zones let you apply parts of a chain differently based on different
incoming information
Zone types are key, velocity, and chain select
Pressing D in hot swap mode toggles between the full drum
rack target and the last selected pad
Dragging a pad onto another swaps their note mapping
Increase the number of macro knobs with the plus/minus buttons
Randomize all macro controls in a rack with the Rand button
Macro controls can have Variations, presets for how each macro
should be set. Re-save them with the snapshot button
Chains can be dragged from parent racks to an independent track
21. Automation and Editing
Envelopes
Hold ⌘ while in draw mode to draw freehand animation
(usually locked to grid step size)
During breakpoint drawing, moving the cursor slightly away from the
line lets you drag the whole line rather than create a new breakpoint.
Can also hold ⇧ to do this
Hold ⇧ to restrict lock breakpoint motion to
horizontal/vertical axis
Hover over a time selection to see selection automation handles
Corner handles let you skew an animation
Simplify Envelope command seems good for simplifying animation
curves created by tracking manual changes to a parameter
22. Clip Envelopes
Pitch modulation is additive—adding to the Transpose control’s
value
Sample offset modulation is a thing, seems interesting
Two modulation envelopes affect volume: Clip Gain and Track
Volume
Unlinking automation from samples lets you either loop a sample and
automate for a long time, or loop an automation on a long sample
Warp markers affect clip envelopes
23. Working with Video
Another thing I don’t really do. Learned that Live has a video
viewer/editor built in
24. Live Audio Effect
Reference
Amp
Seven presets
Clean - “Brilliant” channel of 60s amp
Boost - “Tremolo” channel
Blues - bright 70s guitar amp
Rock - 45 watt 60s amp
Lead - “Modern” channel of high-gain amp used for metal
Heavy - “Vintage” channel
Bass - 70s amp with strong lows and some fuzz
Gain control is the main way to affect distortion
Presence knob is for mid/highs
Designed to be used along with the companion Cabinet effect
Because of physical modeling, energy is limited, e.g. turning up
Treble might reduce level of bass/mids
Auto Filter
Each filter can have either 12 or 24 dB slope
Circuit options, not sure what all this means but can hear the
differences
Clean - same as filters in EQ Eight
OSR - state-variable with resonance and hard-clipping
MS2 - soft clipping, less resonance
SMP - custom
PRD - ladder design
Drive control for any circuit besides Clean
Morph filter control sweeps around lowpass, bandpass, highpass,
notch, repeat
Auto Filter can be sidechained
Sample and Hold generates random positive/negative modulation
values
Spin detunes LFO speeds relative to each other
Auto Pan
Phase is good for producing vibrato
Beat Repeat
Captures material every Interval (with some Chance based on that
param) and repeats it
Gate determines the length of repetitions in sixteenths
The Repeat button captures immediately and repeats indefinitely
No Triples makes grid division binary
Variation changes the Grid Size
Pitch Decay makes each slice play lower than the previous one
Pitch Decay plus the Repeat button at the right time can make some
cool downlift effects (that’s from experimenting, not the manual)
Signal modes
Mix adds repetitions but passes original signal
Insert mutes original signal while repetitions are playing
Gate passes repetitions only (useful for return tracks)
Cabinet
Physical modeling of a few different classic guitar cabinets
4x12 means four 12-inch speakers
Channel EQ
Comes with highpass 80 Hz switch
Mid has a sweepable bell filter, can set center frequency between
120 Hz and 7.5 kHz
Second delay has Off, Fix (only modulate
first delay), and Mod (modulate both) modes
The link button (=) sets both delay times to that of
the first delay
The *20 button multiplies modulation frequency by
20
Comes with polarity switch
Chorus-Ensemble
Classic, Ensemble, and Vibrato modes
Classic - two time-modulated delayed signals
Ensemble - three-delay line chorus with evenly split modulation
phases
Vibrato - makes pitch variation. The shape can morph between sine
and triangle waves
The Warmth control just adds some distortion and filtering
Compressor
The Makeup button automatically adjusts output level to take up
available headroom
The Knee control helps start compression gradually as the threshold
is approached
Transfer Curve view can be helpful for setting Knee
Activity view can show Gain Reduction or Output
Linear mode has compression response determined linearly by Attack
and Release, Logarithmic mode has faster release times for strongly
compressed peaks
Automatic Makeup is turned off when sidechaining is on
Sidechaining with a lowpass EQ can help isolate kicks and duck other
sounds when they hit
Corpus
Physically models seven kinds of resonant objects
Sidechain section lets you use incoming midi to affect resonance
tuning etc.
Last/Low switch picks whether most recent or lowest note has
priority (in case of incoming midi chord)
PB range sets semitone range for pitch bend modulation
Inharm compresses frequencies and negative values, and extends them
at higher ones, to change the pitch of resonator harmonics
Pipe Opening affects one end between fully closed and fully
open
There’s a built-in limiter
Delay
The numbers are simply a number of 16th notes
Feedback has two independent loops, for each stereo channel
Bandpass filter is applied before the delay
Drum Buss
Comp applies a pre-defined compressor prior to distortion
Three kinds of distortion
Soft - waveshaping
Medium - limiting
Hard - clipping with bass boost
Controls are split into Mid-High (Crunch, Damp, Transients) and Low
end (Boom, Decay)
Crunch is a sine-shaped distortion on mids and highs
Damp is a low-pass filter
Transients operates on frequencies above 100 Hz. Both negative and
positive add attack. Positive adds sustain, negative decreases it.
Dynamic Tube
Three tube models: A, B, and
C
Tone controls spectral distribution, whether distortions are pitched
higher or lower
Bias controls intensity, towards nonlinear distortion
Echo
Sync Modes: Notes, Triplet, Dotted, 16th
Delay offset can be adjusted even when Stereo Link is enabled
D button applies distortion to the dry signal
Ø button inverts output signal before adding back to input (on a
per-channel basis)
White dots in Echo Tunnel tab represent an 8th note grid
Character tab has effect ducking when original input is beyond the
threshold
Wobble modulates delay time irregularly
Echo turns itself off to save CPU after at least eight seconds
(unless Noise and Gate are on)
EQ Eight
Adaptive Q increases Q as amount of boost or cut increases
Scale adjusts gain of all filters
Right click for Oversampling, which smooths out filters at higher
frequencies
The Analyze button seems not to work when I tried it?
EQ Three
Like a DJ mixer’s EQ
Signal presence lights have a threshold of -24 dB
24 dB / 48 dB switch determines how sharp the filters are
Filters are designed to act like analog filter cascades so can
affect sound even at 0 db (this kind of explains why a bunch of stacked
EQ Threes produce a disperser effect)
Erosion
The first effect I already knew “everything” about!
External Audio Effect
I don’t have external hardware to produce effects with, but good to
know they can be inserted in device chains like any other effect
Filter Delay
Three delay lines (L, L+R, R) with lowpass and highpass filters
Poles creates a number of notches across the frequency spectrum
Feedback can invert the waveform and make notches into peaks
Space/Earth change the spacing of notches along the spectrum
Phaser-Flanger
Phaser, Flanger, and Doubler modes
Phaser feeds a phase-shifted input into the input, creating notch
filters by using modulated all-passes. The display shows notch
positions
Flanger creates a comb filter using a time-modulated delay with
feedback. The display shows modulation signal effects
Doubler stacks time-modulated delayed signals, giving the feeling of
multiple stacked takes. The display shows delay time from left to
right
Duty Cycle changes the time scale of the waveform, compressing
towards the left or light of its cycle
Feedback can be inverted with the Ø button
Safe Bass is a high-pass
Redux
Downsampler and bit reducer
Rate sets the sample rate. Lower values mean more inharmonics
Jitter adds noise to the downsampler’s clock
Filter can be Pre or Post
Bit reduction affects noise, distortion, dynamic range, etc.
Shape creates a finer resolution for smaller amplitudes
DC Shift does an amplitude offset before quantization
Resonators
Five parallel resonators that add tonal character
First resonator defines a root pitch, the others are tuned relative
to it
Filter happens before resonators are fed
Color affects resultant sound brightness
Reverb
Signal goes through high and low cut first
Early reflections are echoes that lack some of the diffusion of the
eventual reverb tail
Shape control affects early reflections, changing the difference
between when reflections come back and the onset of diffusion. Lower
values tend to give smoother results
Decay time refers to time for tail amplitude to drop to 1/1000th
(-60 dB) of original
High shelf is similar to sound absorption by material in a room
Freeze keeps the diffuse response going
Cut keeps the input from adding to a frozen reverb
Flat bypasses the high/low shelf filters
Echo Density and Scale affect the room’s color
Saturator
Input on the X axis, output on the Y
Signal clipping is softened except in Analog/Digital Clip modes
Waveshaper controls
Drive - how much input signal feeds in
Lin - changes linear portion of shaping curve
Curve - adds harmonics to the input signal
Damp - flattens signal near the origin (like a noise gate)
Depth - controls amplitude of a superimposed sine
Period - density of superimposed sine
DC Button activates a filter that can remove DC offsets
Pitch and frequency shifting, as well as ring modulation
LFO has Duty Cycle, Phase, Spin, Width
Spectral Resonator, Spectral
Time
These entire sections (and their main ideas) were totally new to me,
so I’ll just say they start on page 482 and I should go read them again
later.
Spectrum
Spectrum graphs audio by frequency on the X axis and dB on the
Y
Peak levels stick around until the song is restarted
Doesn’t alter the signal in any way
Most sliders have an accuracy/CPU load tradeoff
Logarithmic and semitone are the same scaling, thanks to how music
works
Linear scaling helps to dig in on high frequencies
Tuner
Shows monophonic nearest-semitone pitch and distance from that
pitch
Target mode was helpful for tuning a piano
Strobe mode seems kind of odd? Not sure why it exists
There’s a graph view showing pitch over time
Utility
Finally, another one where I knew everything the manual has to
say.
Vinyl Distortion
Crackle effects as well as harmonic distortion, simulating
vinyl
Pinch effect adds harmonics, usually 180 degrees out of phase
Soft Mode is like a dub plate, Hard Mode is like a standard vinyl
record
Vocoder
Combines frequency of one signal (carrier) with amplitude of another
(modulator)
Sens sets sensitivity of the detection algorithm
Precise/Retro changes filter behavior (retro bands are narrower,
louder at high frequency)
Vocoder has many different effect possibilities, like singing
synthesizer, format shifter, noise generator/modulator, etc.
Live MIDI Effect Reference
Arpeggiator
The word arpeggiare is Italian for playing notes on a
harp
Random Other mode randomly selects notes from incoming midi, but
doesn’t repeat until all other notes have been used
Random Once creates a random pattern and repeats it until incoming
midi changes
Hold makes the pattern continue after note release, can add notes
while playing others, and can remove notes by playing them again
Chord
Builds a chord by selecting relative pitches (in semitones) compared
to the incoming pitch
Note Length
Can double a note’s length, set it to a certain number of
milliseconds, or set to some time synced with song tempo
On/Off Balance is the velocity of the output note
Decay time affects velocity
Key Scale can map a note’s pitch to affect its length
Pitch
Transposition with a range of ±128 semitones
Random
Adds probability to pitch values
Rnd produces random alterations and Alt produces a cycle around
allowed output notes
Can use Alt to simulate e.g. alternating between upbow and downbow
on a stringed instrument
The Random effect plus the Scale effect creates a simple randomized
sequencer
Scale
Maps all pitches into notes of a specified scale
Fold maps notes to a smaller range if their offset exceeds six
semitones
Velocity
Can squash, translate, or randomize incoming velocities to a
different range
Clip Mode clips velocities to stay in range
Gate Mode removes notes outside the range
Fixed Mode means Out Hi is applied to all outgoing velocities
Compand both expands and compresses depending on whether the value
is greater than zero
Live Instrument Reference
I use external plugins or samples for almost all my instruments, and
Live’s instruments seem fairly self-explanatory (if you experiment with
all the different settings a bit). Plus this section is over a hundred
pages long. Maybe I’ll come back to it someday.
Max for Live
I haven’t had a need to create any custom Max devices. I imagine if I
ever do create something, it’ll most likely be via programming a VST
rather than Max (especially using the “patcher” GUI). However, I gave
this section a skim to get an idea of what was possible.
Max for Live Devices
A bunch of instruments and effects you can poke around inside (using
Max)
DS Clang
DS Clap
DS Cymbal
DS FM
DS HH
DS Kick
DS Sampler
DS Snare
DS Tom
Align Delay
Envelope Follower
LFO
Shaper
Envelope MIDI
Expression Control
MPE Control
Note Echo
Shaper MIDI
MIDI and Key Remote Control
Another feature I don’t really use. I do remember mapping a key once
to easily A/B two parts. (And, now that I’ve learned the crossfader
exists, that wasn’t necessary.) I’ll come back here if I ever need more
than that.
Using Push
I don’t have a Push.
Using Push 2
I don’t have a Push 2.
Synchronizing
with Link, Tempo Follower, and MIDI
Seems cool to synchronize devices over a network, but I haven’t
wanted to actually do this.
Computer Audio
Resources and Strategies
The CPU Load Meter tracks load from audio processing only
CPU Load Meter has a bunch of options for display, and a way to turn
on warnings
CPU load can go over 100% in case of computation taking more time
than playing the audio buffer
Live doesn’t disable used channels because hardware drivers can
hiccup on audio configuration changes
Effects are, however, disabled sometimes (e.g. when the channel is
off)
RAM mode reduces trips to disk
Audio Fact Sheet
I’m sure this stuff is of technical interest to someone, but not
really to me.
Live has 473 automated tests (this seems kinda low?)
Neutral operations result in zero diff to the original signal. Most
things (even a gain change, or dithering) are non-neutral
MIDI Fact Sheet
Note: the MIDI timing issues discussed in this paper are generally
not applicable to users with high-quality audio and MIDI hardware. If
you…are not experiencing problems with MIDI timing, you probably do not
need this information.
Sold.
Live Keyboard Shortcuts
Good to reference, but I’ve already noted the ones that matter to me
above.
I also noticed this section claims Follow’s shortcut is
⌘⇧K on Mac, but it’s actually
⌘⇧F.
The End
That’s all there is. As a bonus, here’s the loop I made while reading
the manual, as a way to tinker with all these new effects, instruments,
and so on.