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- Discover: MELD!
Discover: MELD!
Ableton Cook up
October 30, 2024
In today’s newsletter:
☷Session View vs. Arrangement View: Pros and Cons
🧮Explore Live 12’s New Sound Design Device: MELD
🆚Ableton MOVE vs. Akai MPC Live II: Why Ableton Move Is the Better Choice for Live Producers
🌍 Ableton Live Community Composing Using Text Scores, with Maya Shenfeld
⚡[Workflow Trick] Auto-Hide Plugins
☷Session View vs. Arrangement View: Pros and Cons
Ableton Live offers two distinct modes for music production: Session View and Arrangement View. Each has its strengths, depending on what you want to accomplish. With Live 12’s new flexible window arrangement feature, it’s now easier to switch between both, or even view them simultaneously, enhancing workflow flexibility.
Session View is known for its creative freedom. It’s a grid-based layout where clips can be launched and combined freely, making it ideal for improvisation and experimentation. This view is especially useful during live performances or when you’re exploring new ideas without the restrictions of a timeline. Its non-linear structure allows you to play around with loops, record spontaneous ideas, and experiment with different musical sections quickly. However, it can become chaotic as your project grows in complexity, making it harder to maintain an organized workflow.
Pros of Session View:
Ideal for quick idea generation and live performances.
Great for experimenting with loops and arrangements.
Encourages spontaneity in the creative process.
Cons of Session View:
Lacks a clear timeline, making detailed work harder.
Can become disorganized with larger projects.
Arrangement View on the other hand, offers a more structured, timeline-based approach. It’s perfect for finalizing tracks, detailed editing, and adding automation. This linear view provides a clear overview of your project, allowing you to fine-tune arrangements and ensure everything is in sync. While it’s more suited for detailed production work, it can feel rigid and less intuitive for improvisation or live experimentation.
Pros of Arrangement View:
Excellent for precise editing and arranging.
Easier to manage complex projects with a timeline.
Ideal for automation and detailed effects processing.
Cons of Arrangement View:
Less flexible for live performance or quick idea generation.
Can feel limiting during early creative stages.
With Ableton Live 12’s Customizable Window Arrangement, you no longer have to choose between these views. This feature lets you display both simultaneously, offering the best of both worlds. You can improvise in the Session View while keeping an eye on your arrangement, allowing for a smoother, more dynamic workflow.
Session and Arrangement Views
🧮Explore Live 12’s New Sound Design Device:
MELD
Ableton Live 12 introduces MELD, a new instrument that expands the creative possibilities for producers with advanced synthesis and a highly customizable modulation system. Its flexible structure is perfect for those looking to create dynamic, ever-evolving sounds through a combination of powerful oscillators, LFOs, envelopes, and a modulation matrix that allows control over every aspect of the sound.
At the core of MELD are two oscillators, offering a wide range of waveforms from classic analog to complex digital shapes. Every oscillator parameter can be modulated, providing endless sound-shaping possibilities. However, what truly sets MELD apart is its modulation matrix, allowing a variety of modulators to be assigned to any parameter of the instrument.
The matrix is the key to MELD’s flexibility. With it, you can assign modulation sources like LFOs and envelopes to multiple destinations, such as oscillator pitch, filter cutoff, or even the rate of the LFO itself. Each assignment is displayed in real-time, with a clear visual representation showing how parameters are influenced by modulations. The modulation depth is fully adjustable, enabling subtle movements or drastic sound transformations.
MELD’s LFOs offer a wide range of waveforms and can be synced to the project tempo or operate freely, adding motion and complexity to the sound. Envelopes, on the other hand, shape the dynamic behavior of the sound over time and can be assigned to any synthesis parameter, such as filter or volume, to achieve controlled tonal variations.
One of the most powerful features of MELD’s modulation matrix is the ability to chain modulations. For example, you can use one LFO to modulate the rate of another LFO or assign an envelope to control the depth of an existing modulation, creating complex and evolving modulation chains.
In short, MELD combines power and flexibility, offering producers complete control over every aspect of their sound. With its modulation matrix, you can craft dynamic, intricate, and entirely unique sounds.
To dive deeper into how to get the most out of these new features, check out this video:
🆚Ableton MOVE vs. Akai MPC Live II: Why Ableton Move Is the Better Choice for Live Producers
When comparing the new Ableton Move with the Akai MPC Live II, both devices cater to different types of producers. However, for those already using Ableton Live as their main DAW, the Move is the clear winner in terms of integration, features, and pricing.
Integration & Workflow
The Ableton Move is built to fully integrate with Ableton Live, offering a plug-and-play experience. Every control (pads, knobs, and sliders) is mapped directly to Live’s key functions, meaning users can control instruments, clips, and effects without needing to reconfigure settings or software. In contrast, the MPC Live II uses its own standalone operating system, with an internal version of MPC 2.0 software, requiring producers to switch between environments, which may slow down the workflow for Live users.
Tech Specs & Features
The Move boasts 32 velocity-sensitive pads and dedicated controls for Ableton’s Session View, making it perfect for live performances and studio sessions. The MPC Live II also offers a pad-based workflow with a 16-pad layout, a built-in 7-inch multi-touch display, and a shared feature: built-in speakers and battery power. However, the Move’s seamless integration with Ableton Live makes up for the lack of standalone features, offering a streamlined approach to production and performance.
Sampling & Performance
While the MPC Live II is known for its legendary sampling capabilities, Ableton Move fully leverages Live’s advanced sampling and clip-launching functionalities. You can instantly launch and manipulate clips from the Session View, automate effects, or create intricate modulations using Live’s LFOs and automation tools. This is a huge advantage for producers already using Live, allowing you to stay within one environment without exporting and importing files across platforms.
Pricing
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the Ableton Move is its price. At 449 USD it is significantly more affordable than the MPC Live II’s 1229 USD, making it the more attractive option for producers who don’t need a standalone unit. If you’re already using Ableton Live, the Move provides everything you need at a lower cost, ensuring full DAW integration without breaking the bank.
In conclusion, for Ableton Live users, the Ableton Move is the superior choice, offering better integration, more streamlined workflow, and a more attractive price point than the Akai MPC Live II.
Ableton MOVE vs. Akai MPC Live II
🌍 Ableton Live Community
Composing Using Text Scores, with Maya Shenfeld
At Loop Create 2022, composer, performer and educator Maya Shenfeld joined to share the liberating experience of using text scores when writing and performing music. During Shenfeld’s workshop, Loop attendees were invited to write their own text scores, then share and perform them.
Text scores can be any type of instruction, concept, action, or idea for a musical piece that is written down in words. These scores simply convey an idea that the composer would like the performers to think about, or perhaps an action they would like the performers to follow.
Take a listen to the text-inspired performance below, and read more about the history of text scores in this article.
⚡[Workflow Trick]
Auto-Hide Plugins
If it bothers you when plugins disappear immediately when you click on another track then you need to turn off this feature in Live. It is sometimes more intuitive to keep seeing an opened plugin from a track while navigating another track.
How To Do It?
From the preferences window go to the “Plugins” tab and then down in the “Plug-in Windows” section uncheck the “Auto-Hide Plugins in Windows”
Saving Costume Drum Racks
Free Stuff
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