Ableton Move is out!

In today’s newsletter:

  • 🌉Seamlessly Integrating Splice Bridge with Ableton: A Quick Guide

  • 👊🏻 Drum Buss Adding Punch and Character to Your Drum Mixes

  • 💾How to Use Templates in Ableton Live

  • 🌍 Ableton Live Community Move is out!

  • [Workflow Trick] Save a Default MIDI/Audio Track

🌉Seamlessly Integrating Splice Bridge with Ableton: A Quick Guide

As a music producer, you’re always looking for ways to streamline your workflow. One tool that can significantly improve your production process is Splice Bridge. It allows for a smooth connection between Splice’s vast library of samples and your DAW, ensuring that your ideas flow without interruption. If you haven’t integrated Splice Bridge into Ableton yet, here’s a step-by-step guide to get you up and running.

Why Splice Bridge?

Splice Bridge helps you preview samples from the Splice platform in real-time, syncing them to your project’s BPM. This means no more wasting time downloading and adjusting the tempo of every sample: Bridge handles it all seamlessly.

Setting Up Splice Bridge in Ableton

For Mac Users:

  1. First, ensure that Splice Bridge is installed. You can follow Splice’s installation guide if you haven’t done this yet.

  2. Open Ableton and go to the Preferences menu (Command + “,”).

  3. In the File/Folder tab, make sure to enable “Use Audio Units” and “Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders.”

  4. Once these settings are activated, Ableton should automatically recognize Splice Bridge in both AU and VST3 formats. If you don’t see Bridge, try rescanning your plug-ins.

For Windows Users:

  1. Make sure Splice Bridge is installed on your system.

  2. Open Ableton, then navigate to Preferences (Ctrl + “,”).

  3. Under the File/Folder tab, locate the option for “VST3 Custom Folder” and click “browse.”

  4. Manually navigate to the folder where Splice Bridge is installed and select it.

  5. Once you’ve done this, Ableton will scan your plug-ins, and Splice Bridge should appear in your VST3 list.

Adding Bridge to a track

Navigate to "Plug-Ins" in the left sidebar in Ableton, and find the "Splice" folder, under either the VST3 or Audio Units folder: Splice Bridge will be in that folder.

Double-click Splice Bridge to create a new track, or add it as a plugin to an existing MIDI track. If the Splice Desktop App is open, Bridge will then automatically connect: once integrated, Splice Bridge allows you to browse samples directly within Ableton while keeping them in sync with your project’s tempo. It’s an ideal solution for producers who want to audition samples in real-time.

👊🏻 Drum Buss
Adding Punch and Character to Your Drum Mixes

Achieving punchy, impactful drums will take your tracks to the next level. Enter Drum Buss, a powerful tool designed to add depth, punch, and character to your drum mix. Whether you’re working with live recordings, samples, or programmed drums, Drum Buss offers a fast and creative way to enhance your sounds.

The device combines compression, saturation, transient shaping, and more into one easy-to-use interface. Its goal is to add weight and glue to your drum tracks, making them hit harder and sound more cohesive. Drum Buss can take your drum mix from flat and lifeless to powerful and punchy with just a few tweaks.

  1. Drive & Crunch: Drum Buss’s saturation section allows you to add harmonic distortion and grit. The Drive control lets you dial in everything from subtle warmth to aggressive distortion, while Crunch introduces high-frequency saturation, giving your drums more edge and presence.

  2. Boom: Want to beef up your kick drums? The Boom control enhances low-end frequencies, adding sub-bass energy to your drum mix. It’s perfect for giving your kicks that chest-thumping quality.

  3. Transient Shaping: The Transient control lets you emphasize or soften the attack of your drums. Pushing the transients forward can make your drums punch through the mix, while pulling them back can give a smoother, more relaxed sound.

  4. Compression & Dampening: Drum Buss includes built-in compression to tighten up your drums and bring them together. The Damp control reduces harshness in the higher frequencies, allowing your mix to sound warm and balanced.

Drum Buss isn’t just for traditional drum mixes. Try using it on percussion loops, synths, or even entire drum buses to add depth and character to your sound. It’s also great for parallel processing: duplicate your drum track, apply Drum Buss to one, and blend it with the original for a thick, controlled mix. Check this tutorial covering Drum Buss.

Drum Buss

💾How to Use Templates in Ableton Live

Templates in Ableton Live are a powerful tool that can help speed up your workflow and boost your productivity in the studio. Having a set of pre-configured settings allows you to start every new project with your ideal setup already in place. Let’s explore how to make the most of them!

What is a Template?

A template is a pre-saved project that contains all the tracks, instruments, effects, and routing settings you regularly use. It can include volume settings, automation preferences, and even your plugin layout. This way, you don’t have to waste time configuring everything from scratch every time you open Ableton Live.

How to Create a Template

  1. Set up your ideal configuration: Open a blank project and add all the tracks you frequently use (MIDI, audio, or effect buses), your favorite virtual instruments, reference plugins, and automation settings. For example, you might have a track for the kick, one for the bass, synths, and so on. You can also modify track colors and parameters like volume levels and panning, tailoring everything to your workflow.

  2. Save as a Template: Once you’re happy with your setup, go to File > Save Live Set As and save the project with a descriptive name like “EDM Prod Template” or “Rap Mix Template.” Save the file in Ableton’s Template folder so it’s easy to locate later.

  3. Set it as the Default Template: If there’s a setup you always use, you can make it your default template. Go to Preferences > File Folder and click Save Current Set as Default. This way, every time you start a new project, Ableton will automatically load that template.

Benefits of Using Templates

Using templates allows you to save time. You won’t need to worry about setting up every single element from scratch, enabling you to dive straight into the creative process. Additionally, you can create different templates for various genres or types of projects, such as one for production, another for mixing, and a different one for mastering.

For producers using Ableton Live, templates are an indispensable tool to optimize your workflow and finish projects more quickly and efficiently.

Saving a Default Set

🌍 Ableton Live Community
Move is out!

Ableton finally reveals its big secret named “Move.” Yesterday (Oct 6th) the new invention from Ableton comes to life. It is a new portable tool for music making. Similar to the Ableton Push 3, the new Move is a stand-alone music making device; yet, smaller in size that it fits in a handbag.

Ableton says “Move helps you capture your best ideas whenever they appear.” The new device comes at a cost of 449 USD. It features a number of interesting capabilities for its size.

Stay tuned for a full review about Move in our next newsletter.

Move

[Workflow Trick]
Save a Default MIDI/Audio Track

Similar to saving an Ableton Live Set Template you can save both audio and MIDI custom templates. Thus, when creating a new track it will be loaded with your favorite go-to plugins ready for use.

How To Do It?

After loading all the devices and settings you wish to the track right click it and choose “Save as Default MIDI/Audio Track.”

Making Custom Tracks

Free Stuff

Valuable giveaways are coming in our upcoming newsletters!

How was today's newsletter?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.