You don’t need to be a drummer or even know that much about rhythm to start creating your own, unique beats and loops in Ableton Live.
In this week’s blog I’m going to show a really simple technique using clip envelopes to cut up your loops and generate original ideas to use in your tracks.
This is a lesson that pretty much every student at Ideanoise has found useful – keep following our blog for more creative tips and tricks.
If you like, tell me what you’d like to know more about in the comments below and I’ll write you a blog.
Learn from legendary mix engineer, Dave Pensado. Also include interviews with top music industry artists,engineers, producers, mixers, and record executives.
Compression is one of the most important skills to master in music production but is usually seen as a dark art by those who haven’t quite grasped it.
In this blog post we’re going to walk through the best way to set up a compressor so you can really hear how it’s changing your sound in order for you to make proper judgement. We’re using Ableton’s compressor in this example but the following technique can be applied to any compressor.
Why use compression?
There are many uses for a compressor – from smashing transients on a snare, to smoothing out vocals. Your final settings will depend on what you’re trying to achieve. In this example we’ll be compressing a drum loop. The aim will be to keep the punch on the drums by allowing some transients through, but controlling the overall level in order to thicken up the sound.
Basic controls
Ableton’s info view does a decent job of explaining the controls on the compressor while hovering your mouse over them. Here’s a brief (and not so technical) overview of the important parameters we’ll be using in this tutorial:
Makeup
Makeup is an automatic gain control which increases the output volume as you compress. I mention this only because we will be turning this function off.
Threshold
Threshold is the level at which compression takes place on our incoming signal. This can be loosely thought of as the amount of compression.
Ratio
This can be loosely thought of as the strength of compression. Higher ratios will result in stronger compression.
Attack
The attack controls how fast the compression kicks in after the signal breaches the threshold. Raising this parameter has the effect of increasing transient detail by allowing the first few milliseconds of the signal to pass through uncompressed.
Release
The release controls how long it takes for compression to stop after the signal falls back below the threshold.
Gain Reduction Meter (GR)
The gain reduction meter shows how much the compressor is squashing (reducing gain on) the signal.
The trick is to overdo it…
In order for us to effectively set our attack and release controls we need to really hear what’s happening. Overdo the amount of processing, make the ideal settings then dial back the amount.
Let’s Compress…
Select a drum loop for this tutorial. Open up Ableton’s compressor, then work your way through these steps:
1. Start with the makeup switch off. The attack at 0.01ms and the release at around 2ms. Having the release at 0ms would probably create distortion which we want to avoid in this example.
2. Crank up the ratio to around 20:1 so we get very strong compression and with the loop playing, pull down the threshold until there is a large amount of gain reduction happening in the GR meter.
Now we are over compressing the signal, let’s move on to the attack.
3. Slowly increase the attack and listen to the signal as you do it. As the attack reaches around 6.0 or 7.0ms you should hear the transients appear, bringing the snap and punch back in to the loop. You can now set the attack according to how much of this punch you want in the end result.
4. Watch the GR or gain reduction meter whilst setting the release. In this example we want the compressor to reset after each drum hit in the loop. So the release should be quite fast, the GR meter should be returning to or almost to zero between drum hits.
The best release setting is dependent on the tempo of the loop. Faster tempos will lead to less time between hits and therefore a faster release setting.
You should hear the compressor creating a sucking effect as it releases in between hits. Use your ear to ultimately decide on the correct timing and groove the release creates.
5. The attack and release is dialed in, now we can pull back the threshold so it’s effecting only the peaks of the input signal.
6. The ratio can also return to reasonable setting. Around 5.0:1 sounds fine in this example, this ratio is strong enough to control the high peaks but remains quite transparent.
Again, your ears should be the ultimate decider on these two settings. You can experiment with ratio and threshold with confidence knowing the attack and release is set.
7. Whilst bypassing the compressor on and off you can use the output control (Out) to the right of the GR meter to make sure the compressed signal is of equal volume to the uncompressed/bypassed signal. This way you can make proper judgement on exactly what effect your compressor is having.
For more information on the many different ways to use compression and when you should do it, book a masterclass at Idealnoise.
Start the New Year with three music production exercises to improve your composition skills.
1. Reference an existing arrangement
Pick a simple track you like which works on the dancefloor and copy the arrangement bar for bar. Use it as a guide to understand why a track is successful.
Replace the sounds with your own similar sounds and write your own melodies. Think about the space each sound takes in the frequency spectrum and make sure yours are a similar match.
If you do this right you’ll end up with a completely different track and be one step further in understanding how to lay down an arrangement that delivers.
2. Go minimal
Too much choice with sounds and effects is not always a good thing. Great creative learning can come from simplifying your next session. Try one of these approaches:
Force yourself to use just one synth for a whole track. Creating all sounds, including drums from one place. You can layer some drums with samples if you need more impact.
Or choose to use only samples and no synths. Make a new folder of 20 or so samples and use sound design to create a whole track from only these samples.
3. Bootleg a track
There are so many acapella and remix packs out there, that make bootlegging easier than ever. It’s a great way to get yourself noticed if you do a good job, and the lessons you’ll learn from this exercise will be invaluable.
Remember, if you don’t directly profit then you’re not infringing any copywrite laws and you are free to play the track out or give it to DJs who will do that for you.
These are some of the lessons for beginners we work through with our students at Idealnoise. For in-depth tailored tuition on music production and composition techniques, book yourself onto a masterclass at our London based studio in Peckham, SE15.
Here’s a simple but great alternative to EQ that can be used when you’re looking to boost frequencies in an instrument or voice.
What are benefits to using overdrive and saturation rather than EQ?
Boosting with digital EQ can be a hit and miss task – unless you have an analogue style equaliser and the source is perfectly recorded, the result can be harsh or unpleasant.
EQ will only work on the harmonics already present in the sound. Whereas distortion creates new harmonics which, if used carefully, can sound sweeter at higher gain.
Some multi-band saturation plug-ins
Fabfilter’s Saturn plugin is a great tool to achieve this effect. It has split frequency bands which you can add variable amounts of saturation to.
Ableton’s Overdrive is a simple but effective tool that can get also the job done. We’ll use this plug-in as an example to demo how you can approach this.
STEP 1: set the drive amount
As a starting place, try setting the drive amount to 20%.
STEP 2: choose the frequency range you want to boost
Using the bandpass filter display (at the top of the plugin) we can choose the frequency range at which the boost will be added. Try setting the bandwidth to 3.5 and then slide the centre frequency from left to right to find the sweet spot.
Try boosting low end on bass lines, high end on high hats and vocals, mid range on percussion.
STEP 3: dial it in
Once the right frequency area has been found you can vary the bandwidth, wet/dry and drive to get just the right blend of saturated boost.
You will probably only need the wet/dry mix to be around 10-20% as any more than this will result in a distortion effect rather than an EQ boost.
NEXT STEPS:
Experiment and have fun! Feel free to post any questions you have in the comments below.
