The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

A is for ABLETON
Cmon, how could we not kick this off by talking
about the name? We posted way back about
the confusion surrounding this - how to
pronounce it, how to spell it. The most
important rule is dont confuse the company
name with the software name! 'Ableton Live', or
just Live', is the software, Ableton' is the
company that makes it! Dont call the software
Ableton, as in Okay lets launch this Ableton
project". Wrong wrong wrong. Especially now
that Ableton have another product - Push (tell you a secret tho, everybody calls the software Ableton
once in a while. It just slips out!). Ableton begins with an A, and follows it with a B. This makes it a perfect
choice of name for people who choose their software by browsing alphabetical lists; Reason hasnt got a
hope in hell. Its a similar tactic used by mini cab companies and window cleaners in printed business
directories. AABB Cabs.ABCAB window cleaners. Possible spin-off business ideas for the future,
guys? Just in case the software thing doesnt work out?

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

B is for BACK TO ARRANGEMENT BUTTON

Otherwise known as the music software
incarnation of pure evil. The BTA button lets
you tell Live to override the clips that are
currently playing in the Session View, and
revert back to playing whats in the
Arrangement View timeline. Quite simple, and
a very important control when you have clips in
both views. As of Live 9, and Push, this
changed a bit. During the beta phase, the BTA
button moved around the screen a bit, before
settling in the scrub area at the top right of the Arrangement View tracks. Live 9 also introduced separate
BTA buttons for each track, so you can conveniently combine Session and Arrangement playback, which
is a great feature. Confusingly for newbies, these buttons disappear when not needed, which is not a
good way to go; same as Im not sold on the way the buttons on Push only light up when 'neededI
wanna see the labels the rest of the time as well.

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

C is for CLIP
You can keep all the fancy features that have
been added to Live over the years; audio to
MIDI? Phooey! its still about what it has been
since day 1 - clips and warping! Clips are the
Lego, the building blocks from which Live is
made. We can create and drag them around in
the Arrangement View, but clips - and Live itself
- really come to life in Session View, when you
start exploring all the different ways you can
trigger them. Its all about launch modes and
quantization. With the right hardware MIDI controller, launching perfectly synced loops and immaculately
timed one-shots has never been more like playing an instrument. When you first start out with Live, this
is the most amazing thing. One of the best things about teaching Live is that I get to live that moment of
discover over and again with the new students. A room full of kids firing off loops set to Gate or Repeat,
with quantization of 1/16thnothing like it. Hell, you can even use the computer keyboard to launch em!
And just teasing about the Audio to MIDII love that!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

D is for DEVICES
Lives compatible with Audio Unit and VST
plug-ins, the little bits of software that provide
extra instruments and effects, but before you
add anything, it includes a great selection of
plug-ins - or devices, as Ableton call them - to
get you started. Open your Browser and youll
see them organised as Instruments, Audio
Effects, and MIDI Effects. Which ones youll
see depends on the version of Live youre
using; Live Intro currently includes a total of 29
devices, Live Standard has 40, and Live 9 Suite has 49 - every Live device available - as well as a whole
bunch of Max for Live devices, which have their own category in the Browser. Spend some time getting
to know these devices before adding more; youll definitely need more plug-ins along the way, but focus
on learning how to use the native ones first! As of Live 9 the Instrument devices have audio previews so
you can hear an example sound before you load the factory presets; very helpful. Just click once on the
preset name in the Browser to hear the preview, and use the arrow keys on your computer keyboard to
buzz around the devices and presets like a champ.

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

E is for ENVELOPES
When you move one of Lives controls during
recording, those moves are recorded as
automation. Youll see evidence of this in two
ways - red dots on the controls that have
automation attached to them, and red lines and
dots in either the clip envelope view, or in the
Arrangement View tracks. Yes, we can work
with automation at clip and track level. New in
Live 9 was the ability to record clip envelopes,
instead of having to draw the pesky things in this works quite well with Push. In an experimental mood with clips, a fun thing to do with envelopes is to
click and drag to select a section, then copy and paste that section across the clip or track - or go nuts
and paste it into a totally different parameter, just to hear what it does. One more useful envelope thing when you Commit a Groove into a Live clip, it converts the velocity from the groove into an envelope that
you can tweak further - this works with audio and MIDI clips. Top points for flexibility! Work those
envelopes hard; theyre a great way to add organic quality to what otherwise can be just a bunch of
loops going on and off!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

F is for FOLLOW ACTION

We heart follow actions! Youll find the controls
in the Session Views Launch box. A follow
action is a way to affect clip launch behaviour
after the current clips finished playing. Select a
clip, then enter a time value in bars, beats, and
sixteenths - this is the time that passes before
the follow action occurs. Then enter one or two
follow actions - these events such as Stop, and
Play Again. Finally, enter either one or two
randomisation values - the higher the value,
the more likely the follow action will occur. You can select multiple clips in the same track and apply
follow actions to all of them. Follow actions play through until they reach an empty clip slot. How to use
them? So many waysfor stopping particular clips in scenes that continue playing; for randomised clip
playback during your live show; for writing a melody automatically (put a different note in each clip and it
will play a tune); for creating weird phrases with speech samples; for a jamming buddy with drum beats
while you practice guitar. Best of all is that if youre in record mode, the follow actions are recorded FANTASTIC!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

G is for GUITAR
Yeah - GUITAR! Live is still very underrated as
a tool for guitar players; you can use it as a
host for software amps and cabs, as a
sophisticated effects processor, a looping
device, a multitrack recorder, and a jamming
buddy (especially with follow actions). These
days your entire guitar rig can be a little laptop
and interface like the Apogee Jam - see our
earlier post about that. The main thing that
stops Live achieving full instant guitar rig status
is that the onboard Amp and Cabinet devices are HORRIBLE; its embarrassing. Theyre the worst guitar
amps in any major DAW software (very good for mashing up drums and vocals, though). Also, there
really should be a guitar tuner device in there. So you have to shop around for other guitar modelling
solutions, which is a shame and a bit of a deterrent. To be honest, if I want to record guitars, I use the
Logic amps, or hardware modelling solutions like Fenders Mustang and Avids Eleven Rack. Yow - the
letter G has turned into a bit of a downer! Well, lets be more positive and remember all the other
reasons I mentioned that makes Live rock for guitarists. If you havent plugged into it yet, dont wait any
longer.

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

H is for HOT SWAP

In case you havent realised, that little button
with the rotating arrows you see all over Live on devices, on sample slots, all over the place thats the Hot Swap button, and its one of the
best time-saving tools in Live - that and Live 9s
updated search function; start using both of
these and youll be buzzing around the
Browser like a champ. Lets say youre using
Auto Filter - click the Hot Swap button and
youre taken straight to the Auto Filter presets
in the Browser. Now use your computer keyboards arrow keys to browse up and down the list, and enter
to load a preset. This doesnt end the swap action, so you can continue to go through the list, loading
and auditioning effect presets directly from your keyboard; this is a very fast way to get around, but if you
want to go even faster - which you probably do - type q to punch in and out of Hot Swap instead of
using the button. Thats my recommended method, but we couldnt call this Q is for HOT SWAP,
though, that would be wrong! Hot Swap works with presets youve created in third-party plug-ins as well,
and its awesome for sample swapping inside drum racks!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

I is for INFO VIEW

Live has an Info View, at the bottom left of the
screen; type ? to open it, or use the little
triangular button thats down there - Ive never
used that button until today, when I wrote this ? is much faster! As you mouse around Lives
interface, Info View shows you the mostneeded facts and tips about what youre
looking at. Its very useful - this and the Context
Menu are the first and fastest ways to get a
heads-up in Live. Talking of the Context Menu,
when you right-click on certain items inside Live, like clips, track headers, and scenes, you get an menu
item for Edit Info Text. Choose that, then you can type yourself some handy reminders about your set.
This pairs well with our tip about renaming empty clips for on-screen messages. You can be more
creative and amuse yourself by putting ASCII art in there. I first did this in 2008 for a Ministry of Sound
gig - I was projecting my Session View screen, so I kept the Info View open, and anybody who was really
paying attention wouldve seen ASCII images, and dumb comments about the music and the gig. I dont
think it made much different to the audience, but I got a kick out of putting it up there!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

J is for JAMMING
The stereotype of the computer-based
musician used to be a grouchy hermit seeing
out his days in a dark studio somewhere
actually, its still like that for Pro Tools users! ;-)
Us Live users are a more sociable crew - and
more of us use laptops than desktop
computers, more of us are working together,
putting our systems next to each other, for jams
in our homes, studios, and in the clubs (by the
way, I had a celebrity client who banned me
from using the word jam because it had musicianly connotations!). Were usually syncing with MIDI,
sending or receiving it through our hardware interfaces, or over wifi. Ive had ELEVEN iMacs synced
over wifi - its quite a power trip when you tap your spacebar and they all start running. If MIDI sync
doesnt do the trick, we have Tap Tempo and Nudge to get us in the ball park. If youre doing a big-room
tour, youre better off using a hardware sync box, like Rolands new SBX-1. Its really fun to work out your
strategies for jamming - how to route audio? Maybe one of you takes the audio output from the other and
remixes it on the fly; maybe one handles beats and the other melodies - this is a good division of labour,
especially if you're not both clued in about jamming with harmonic material; it avoids a lot of pitfalls. My
top jamming tip? Listen to the other players!
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

K is for KEYBOARD
Keyboards. You cant escape them. Whether
you can play properly or not (I cant), a
keyboard is still the single most useful tool in
music creation, whether its a MIDI keyboard, a
graphic representation of one on an iPad
screen, or Lives own Computer MIDI Keyboard
(which if I remember correctly used to be
officially called the Pseudo MIDI Keyboard).
The piano-style keyboard is such a great allrounder - you can play chords and melodies,
sure, but its also great for programming beats, with the velocity sensitivity of the keys being put to good
use; Id say using an average MIDI keyboard is better for programming drums than using average drum
pads. And of course as a controller, theyre fantastic - most MIDI keyboards have an assortment of
knobs, faders, and pads, and we Live users can employ the keys to launch clips and scenes, as well as
to play notes. See our movie about Blondies Matt using a keyboard just like that. There are MIDI
keyboards for every budget, and in every sizeand when you want to go really small, Lives built-in
keyboard is so useful for travelling laptop users - type shift-cmd-k to toggle it on and off, use the z and x
keys to transpose up and down in octaves, and c and v to change velocity values.

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

L is for LAUNCH MODE

When youre viewing the contents of a clip, you
can also view different panels containing
controls relevant to that clip. One of these is
the Launch box. If you cant see it, click the
small L icon at the bottom left of the screen. Its
important to understand what these launch
modes do, and to use different settings for
different clips in your set. Itll feel more alive
when youre jamming. Trigger is a good default
setting; Toggle is ideal when youre using a
hardware controller to launch clips; Gate gives you a more keyboard-like behaviour, sustaining the clip
only while you hold it down, and Repeat takes you into more stuttery, glitch-type action. Duplicate the
clip, reverse the copy, then use the Repeat mode to get a fun messed-up sound as you switch between
them. As well as choosing Launch Modes, we can set quantization values for each clip, which helps get
the best out of the different Launch Modes, and turning on Legato makes your clips play back from the
current playhead position instead of the beginning. If you want a very cool instrument vibe with pads or a
keyboard, assign some velocity sensitivity to the clips as well. All of these launch activities are recorded
into the Arrangement View, which is cool!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

M is for MAX FOR LIVE

Max For LiveMax 4 LiveM4Lhowever
you like to call it, its a spinoff from Cycling 74s
Max MSP, and is included in Live 9 Suite, as
well as being available separately; it lets you
create your own Ableton Live devices, be they
instruments, like the excellent CatStretch from
Max for Cats, or audio effects like the Dub
Machines devices which won our Max For Live
Award last week. Theyre also great solutions
for interacting with hardware instruments and
controllers, like Abletons 8 CCs device for Push. The downsides are that you need M4L installed to use
the devices, and if you want to build your own, be prepared for a steep learning curve. The only M4L
device Ive ever built is one that randomly loads different cat pictures, so what do I know? There are
some more helpful devices out there, but also a lot of stuff where people waste their time showing off
instead of doing something more constructive - M4L is a great way to put off doing music for a bit longer
- time to get a life, maybe? Its also a fine excuse for Ableton to offload development onto users - well,
Live doesnt have that feature, but you could always make a Max For Live patch!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

N is for NOTE
In Ableton Live, a note is an indicator of pitch
and time, but its also a trigger. The note range
spans C-2 to G8 (middle C is C3). You can
draw in notes, record them from external
hardware, or capture them from other tracks
inside your set. Entering notes in Live is
deceptively basic, and the ignorant person will
tell you Live sucks at MIDI programming, but
they are dead wrong because Live has the
most fantastic MIDI Effect Devices, and thats
where a few simple, even aimless, MIDI notes, can come to life in a musical, and dynamic way. As I said
though, a note is also a trigger. You could say it triggers the sound of a software instrument, true
enough, but what I mean is that we can go into MIDI Map Mode and use notes from our MIDI keyboards,
from our drum pads, from our fricking phones even, to trigger clips and scenes. Thats why even a basic,
humble, MIDI keyboard makes such a great controller for Live. One minute youre using it to play
melodies or work out beats, the next, its launching scenes or doing cool stuff with firing clips. Maybe you
should go back and see L is for LAUNCH MODE after reading this one :-) note edit mini-tip: hold down
alt (PC) or cmd (OSX) when dragging a notes end, to change length without it snapping to grid.

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

O is for OVERVIEW
Near the top of the Live screen, below the
control bar, is the Overview. If you cant see it,
choose it in the View Menu, or type alt-cmd-o.
Once you start adding content to your
Arrangement View youll see a small
representation of it in the Overview. This is
helpful when you're jamming in the Session
View while theres also material in the
Arrangement View; it helps keep track of where
youre up to on the timeline. When in
Arrangement View, you can click and drag inside the Overviews zooming hot spot (the black rectangle)
to navigate around the timeline. The Overview expands vertically as you add more tracks - if you have
hundreds of tracks in a set, itll be hogging a lot of screen space! I always turn it off in Session View to
reduce visual clutter; even when Im working with content in both Views at once, I dont think it gives me
enough information to be worthwhile. Itd be awesome if we could drag the Overview downwards to
expand it, and start showing more detail about the clips in the timelinekind of like getting both Views at
once. In Arrangement View of course, its invaluable as a fast way to get around!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

P is for PUSH
Ableton have indulged in hardware
partnerships before, but Push is the first
proper Ableton-branded controller (though still
built by Akai). Push gives you drum pads, a
keyboard (kind of), and a level of controller
functionality. Is Push an instrument? No. Its a
controller. Its great for drum programming. If
youd surveyed Live users and asked if they
wanted something like Maschine for Live, the
answer wouldve been Hell yeah!. So you got
it. I used to say that the ultimate Live controller would be a Launchpad with a Remote Zero SL, and thats
kind of what Push is, although the integration with the software - which no outside company could have
achieved - makes it capable of doing far more. Push is bulky; Ive noticed that my friends who are Push
users are keeping them in the studio and not taking them out for live shows. Push is seen as a bit of a
no-brainer for the Live newb. For more experienced users, with their established working methods, its
not so obvious. You cant please everybody; try before you buy, is what I say. Theres a lot of talk about
using it without looking at the computer but I dont know why people get so hung up on that. Youre using
software - get used to it!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

Q is for QUANTIZATION
I like to talk about how Live treats MIDI and
audio in the same way, and heres another
great example of that quantization. Thats
what its called when software automatically
corrects the timing of recorded MIDI notes. It
can either do it in real-time as the notes are
played in, or afterwards, applied to selected
regions. Every DAW has quantization, but Live
does it faster and easier. But theresaudio
quantization as well: use cmd-u inside an audio
clip and you can fix the timing of the audio just as easily as if it was MIDI! Shift-cmd-u takesyou into
Quantize Settings so you can adjust the note values involved; you can choose whether to correct note
start, end, or both, and set an Amount value (as a percentage), to blend in some of the original timing if
you want to. This is a fantastic time-saver its a great way to start on any task where youre correcting
timing use quantization to fix the entire clip automatically, then go in and manually adjust or delete any
warp markers that havent gone in the right place. Its also a fantastic tool if youre working with ambient/
found sounds and you want to quickly lock them to some kind of rhythm it works with anything!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

R is for RECORDING
We can record audio or MIDI into either of
Lives Views. Lets start with the Session View;
arm the track or tracks you want to record into,
then click the Session Record button to begin
recording. Shift-click if you want to wait until
you launch a clip before commencing
recording. This will record into all of your armed
tracks at the same time, and from audio and
MIDI inputs at the same time across their
respective tracks. With Session recording, you
can be recording on several tracks, and take one out of record and start cutting it into loops and playing
it back while recording continues on the others. As of Live 9, Session recording can also capture control
and mixer movements as clip envelopes. If you enable Start Recording on Scene Launch in
Preferences, you can launch a scene and begin recording in all armed tracks at the same time, which is
nice! Also in Preferences you can enable Record Session automation in All Tracks, and record
envelopes into tracks which arent even armed. This can be quite confusing! You can record just as
easily in Arrangement View, again across multiple MIDI and audio tracks. Which view you record into
depends on the project. Anything short, I record into Session View; anything longer, like guitar tracks or
full vocal takes, I record into Arrangement View.
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

S is for SCENE
In Session View we can only launch one clip
per track at a time, but as many as we like
across separate tracks. There are times when
you want to launch several clips in a row at
once, and instead of clicking and mousing
furiously across the screen before the next bar
starts, do it with one click by launching a
scene; thats what those launch buttons in the
master track are for. One click fires every clip in
that horizontal row. This is great when you
need a bunch of things to happen at once, like changing between song sections. If you want a clip to
ignore a scene change, remove the stop button from the clip below it, using cmd-e. Then when you
launch the scene containing the empty slot, the first clip keeps playing. This gets you more fluid and
organic scene changes. Use cmd-r to rename scenes, and the context menu to colour-code them. If you
name your scene with a BPM value, your project BPM changes when you launch it. If you name your
scene with a time signature, your project time signature changes when you launch that scene.
AWESOME. Name a scene with both BPM and time signature, like this: 124 bpm 5/4, and both values
will change on scene launch. If you have a bunch of clips playing on different rows and you want to
quickly collect them together into one scene use shift-cmd-i; the Capture and Insert Scene command.
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

T is for TEMPO
Tempo is the speed a piece of music is played
at; in our world, were talking about BPM beats per minute. A few BPM up or down can
make a crucial difference to how your audience
perceive your music, especially in dance
music, where it can move you into a whole
different genre. In Live we interact with tempo
in different ways. First, theres the project
Tempo - which we set in the Control Bar at the
top of the screen. A projects BPM doesnt have
to be fixed, because we can automate it in Session View using Scene names (see last time), and in
Arrangement View using track automation. And if we use tap tempo, like from a live drummer with a MIDI
pad, everything in your Live project follows the real musician instead of everybody having to follow the
computer - awesome for live band setups! Live has a separate Tap tempo assignment button near the
top left - you can assign this to any MIDI source, or even your computer keyboard. If Live isnt running
and you tap one bar, itll start playing at the rate of your taps. You can keep tapping to top it up as you
go along. Its one bar as I said, so if your time signature is 4/4, thats four taps, if its 5/4, thats five taps,
and so on. The Tempo Nudge buttons are very useful for lining up Lives tempo with another source.
Awareness of how to use tempo organically can make your loop-based productions much more dynamic!
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

U is for UTILITY
Lives Utility effect device can be found with the
other audio effects in your Library.Its not one
of the most glamorous plug-ins around, but its
damn useful for problem solving and imaging
effects. You can use Utility to mute a track, filter
out DC offset and low-level noise, control track
gain, stereo width, pan, and phase. Its very
useful for sampling, field recording, and voice
recording if you want to extractone channel
froma stereo sample, or if you want toclean
up and maybe re-balancethe sound a bit, Utility will get the job done. Ive used Utility in conjunction with
Waves Center plug-in to manage stereo imaging when I was working on a project last year, refreshing
some old stereo mixes I had, where I couldnt access the original stems. Because like every other Live
device, Utility isMIDI mappable, you can use it as an effect as well as a tool try automating the Width
and Pan control on a synth track, it can be quite disorientingI mean that as a good thing. I also like it
as a gain control for some projects, I have one in every track; sometimes you want to keep your track
faders flat, and this is a great way to pre-mix your track volumes, alongside the clip gain control.
Because Utility has that Mute switch, you could MIDI map a bunch of them and assign them to a second
hardware controller if for some reason you needed two ways to mix your tracks. Just an idea
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

V is for VIDEO
Yes, you can use video in Live! It has
limitations, but it trades those off against some
very cool things. You can drag any QuickTime
compatible movie straight into Live; how it
behaves depends on what View you're in. In
Arrangement, the movie clip looks and
behaves like an audio clip (they load into audio
tracks). You'll see some little 'frame' lines along
the clip edges. Live will open a video window
which shows the movie content; toggle this at
any time with shift-cmd-v. If your computers connected to a second display or a projector, drag the video
window across. Put a bunch of videos in the timeline on one or more tracks and you have a music video
ready to go. If there's audio in the movie clip, you can add audio effect devices to it. Turn on warping for
the clip and you can timestretch the video - this is very useful for fitting video loops to your beats! You
can't play video out of Session View, but it has another trick up its sleeve; drop a movie clip into Session,
and the video is dumped, but the clip audio is retained - this is the fastest way to get an audio sample
from a movie into Live! If you want real integration with video for live performance, the best way to go is
to pair Live with a VJ application like Arkaos VJ. I've used this combo for many live shows, sending MIDI
notes and CCs from Live to launch movies and control visual effects in sync with your music.
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

W is for WARPING
Like it or not, sports fans, Ableton Live is about
two things and two things only the Session
View and Warping. Everything else is optional.
Im not beefing Live is a fantastic
achievement and has revolutionised music
creation; other DAWs have their versions of
time stretching, but Id take Lives warping over
Logics flex time (for example) any day of the
week. Warpings a big subject, but here are a
couple of quick pointers. Make sure you
choose the right warp mode for your audio clips, otherwise the cumulative effect across a mix can be
disastrous but dont be afraid if the right warp mode is not the one that you expected; judge it case by
case. We use Live to straighten out song timings so we can lock them together; your best tools for this
are in the Context Menu Warp From Here and so on. Try them all, and dont be surprised, with less
straight material, if you have to re-applythese at points throughout a song, to keep everything on track.
Sometimes audio quantisation is a good way to get a quick fix on straightening out a song, or part of a
song. For some purposes you might only want to warp the start and end of a song, and quantization can
be good for that. Live 9.2 has improved the sound of warping with Complex and Complex Pro modes, as
well as Auto-Warp and downbeat detection; good to see these core features getting continued tweaks.
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

X is for X-Y CONTROL

X-Y controls are a great way to use one action
to control two effect parameters at the same
time. Load one of Lives audio effect devices,
such as Auto Filte, to see what I mean; that
black box where you drag the little yellow circle
around - those are X-Y coordinates at work. X
is the horizontal movement (axis), and Y is the
vertical movement (axis). This is one of Lives
visual trademarks - the X-Y grid with the little
ring. Even with a mouse or trackpad, this is a
good way to interact with effects, but if you use a hardware controller like a joystick or a touch surface, it
really comes alive. Controllers with joysticks or other X-Y controls include Elektrons Analog Keys,
Kentons Killamix, Novations SL Mk II (with a touch pad as well as joystick, for double the fun), and
Korgs Kaoss Pad, and Taktile keyboards. For touch surfaces, thats mostly going to be iOS devices, with
apps such as Lemur and MIDI Touch. You can a game controller - I still like the Wiimote, especially that
little joystick on the Nunchuk accessory. You can customise Lives X-Y behaviours from the MIDI
Mapping Browser - limit the range of the parameter changes, or invert their ranges, and of course you
can assign more than one device to the same joystick for more complex moves. One thing a mouse is
good for though, is to click around inside the black box for value jumps - that can be a useful effect.
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

Y is for YOU THE USER

Its all about the user. If youve gotsomething in
mind, if theres a statement you want to make,
Live will help you get there. If youre merely
curious at this point, and not really sure about
the whole music productionthing, Live will
show you that theres nothing to be scared of its fun, and it can be very simple at the
beginner level. Dont be put off by all the
complicated stuff you see online - that will be
there for you if and when you need it. Live is
about the users and the community - they interact online, they share information, theyjam together (in
ways that are impossible with other music software), they bring it back into the real world; Live was at the
forefront when the computer-based music scene began to move away from grumpy guys with Pro Tools
rigs trapped in a studio with tower PCs and CRT monitors deeper than they were wide - to a more
dynamic, flexible, andmobile type of interaction. Socialising with other Live users is an important thing theres still nothing like getting together and thrashing out some ideas in meat space! So often, you will
be talking to a Live user and then realise he has his entire live rigwith him - laptop, headphones, petite
soundcard, bijou MIDI controller. We are ready to throw down 24 hours a day. Like they say in the old
movies - lets do the show right here!
The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney

Z is for ZOOM
Theres more than one way to use zooming in
Live. Lets start with Zoom Display, under the
Look Feel tab in Preferences. You can set any
zoom value between 50% and 200%, its useful
I use it a lot, especially on a laptop for live
shows I can fill the screen with just what I
want to see. In fact I use it often enough that I
wish there was a key command for it. Consider
that a feature request, Ableton! Weve got
zooming in the Arrangement View; use the -
and + keys on your keyboard to zoom in and out of the timeline. You can also click and drag up/down/
left/right in that little rectangle in the Overview and double-click in there to quickly zoom out to see your
entire arrangement, or you can do the same thing when you mouse over the beat time ruler, when you
see the magnifying glass icon. I wish I could use the two-finger swipe to zoom in and out in Arrangement
View, Im very used to it from Logic! Ah, maybe thats feature request number two! You get similar zoom
options inside the Sample Display and Note Editor, with the same hot spot rectangle at the bottom right,
and the magnifying glass along the top. Youll find other zoom controls around Live, like inside Simpler,
and the instrument rack zone editor!

The A-Z of Ableton Live - by Martin Delaney