Mixing with Ableton Live
live

I’m far from being an advanced user of Ableton Live, I use it mostly for radio shows and sometimes to stretch stems for remixes, however it seems many people don’t get or underrate the power of a specific Ableton stretching algorithm.

Did you ever listen to some online radio shows and the tracks playing sound like there is an lfo modulating the volume or the phase? Or to be more clear, Did you ever listen to some online radio shows and the tracks played sound like crap?

That’s because of the ableton (or mix meister or what ever) algorithm, by default in Live, this algo is set to “beat” (but in the preferences the default can be setted to any other algorythim) which for full tracks isn’t really appropriate.

The “texture” algorithm doesn’t work either and nor does “tones”, there are 3 other algorithm available “complex” that I personally never liked for full tracks, “complex pro” which works quite well but misses a little something.

What I’m going to suggest to use is the other algorithm Ableton offers “Re-Pitch”, this one despite the other warp modes previously listed, alters the pitch of the track because it acts like the actual pitch from cdjs or turntables.

That’s exactly the point! by using this algorithm we don’t just get rid of that hateful crappy sound, but we also simulate the set being played on turntables/cdj, this gives (in my opinion) a better “in da club” feel.

This thing of course (as all the good things) has its cons, since “Re-Pitch” alters the pitch, most of the time when a track is heavily pitched up or down its key changes so you ll have to re-consider the key you are mixing the other track with, which is a pain in that place.

With a little bit of work though this method gives the closest result to an actual dj-set, worth giving it a try if you never have :)

Share this post

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed
  • Share this post on Delicious
  • StumbleUpon this post
  • Share this post on Digg
  • Tweet about this post
  • Share this post on Mixx
  • Share this post on Technorati
  • Share this post on Facebook
  • Share this post on NewsVine
  • Share this post on Reddit
  • Share this post on Google
  • Share this post on LinkedIn

About the author

David 7 Skies had written 12 articles for 7 Skies Blog

  • http://twitter.com/greenbus399 Green Bus

    Hi David. Although you’ll achieve a closer turntable feel using Re-Pitch you won’t be able to blend harmonics between transitions when the BPM is changing the pitch of the song. Well, you can blend them, but it will sound like crap most of the times. I’ll just sound out of key. You then have to be limited to mix only percussions, staying away from melody and pad synths.

    I have studied a lot how Pros create perfect transitions and discovered most of the secrets. Armin van Buuren, for example, uses Complex Pro algorithm and goes after in-key mixing when making his awesome Year Mix editions of A State of Trance. You can compensate the definition you lose with that algorithm by adding some trebles with the equalizer, or using gently a multi-band compressor.

    One tool that works perfectly to do in-key mixing and he is possibly using is Mixed in Key app, which has a very good precision and workflow while you work with Live. Adding balanced wind and cymbal FX on the moment the bass is changed to next track gives a very professional feel too. You should also avoid jumping from tracks that has more or less than 3 BPM of difference while making harmonic mixes.

    On the regular weekly A State of Trance, Armin does not care about in-key mixing. He just starts with the lowest BPM track he’ll play on the show and then finish with the highest BPM track. Normally it’ll start from 127-129 BPM tracks (more progressive, melodic tracks) and finish around 138-140 BPM (uplifting tracks).

    The information I just showed allows you to create extremely exciting and professional mixes, given enough amount of good sense while choosing and cutting your tracks, of course. It’s not because two tracks match on harmonics and has close BPMs that they’ll definitely sound good. Experimenting is always a fundamental factor if you want high quality results.

blog comments powered by Disqus