Live 12.1 is Out Now!

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Ableton Cook up
October 16, 2024

In today’s newsletter:

  • 🔄Live 12.1 is Out Now!

  • ➡️Understanding Return Tracks in Ableton Live

  • 🏃‍♂️Ableton Move: Unleash Limitless Music Creation Anywhere, Anytime!

  • ☷4 Ableton Tricks on the Triplet Grid

  • 🌍 Ableton Live Community Get to Know Machìna

  • ⚡[Workflow Trick] Control Parameters Inside Plugins

🔄Live 12.1 is Out Now!

Ableton Live 12.1 is now available as a free update for all Live 12 users, including Live Lite. This update brings powerful new tools and improvements across the platform.

Auto Shift: A real-time pitch correction and harmonization tool, Auto Shift allows you to create harmonies, modulate sound using an LFO, and apply vibrato. It works with built-in scales or user-defined ones, making it ideal for vocals and other monophonic instruments.

Drum Sampler: This new instrument offers fast one-shot sample playback with built-in effects like time stretch, ring modulation, FM, and punch. It simplifies loading samples into Drum Racks, allowing for quick adjustments and creative processing on the fly.

Auto-Tagging: Live 12.1 automatically tags samples and VST3 plugins, speeding up your search in the browser. Samples under 60 seconds are instantly categorized, and VST3 plugins are tagged based on their metadata.

Limiter & Saturator: Both effects have been overhauled. The Limiter features Mid/Side routing, True Peak, Soft Clip, and Maximize modes, while the Saturator adds a Bass Shaper curve for precise low-end control.

MIDI Editing: New MIDI tools allow you to filter, select, and transform notes based on pitch, time, velocity, and other properties. MPE support has been enhanced with Glissando and LFO tools to create smoother, more detailed pitch bends and modulations.

Push Updates: Push 2 and 3 users will enjoy updates that include Macro Variations and groove controls. Push 3 standalone also benefits from auto-tagging for samples, Default Sets, and Template Sets.

MIDI Tools & Sequencers Packs: Max for Live developers have introduced new Packs like MIDI Tools and Sequencers, offering advanced sequencing capabilities and unique rhythmic possibilities.

These additions, along with accessibility improvements, new artist content, and expanded browser features, make Live 12.1 a must-have upgrade for all users. If you haven’t yet updated, open Live to install it automatically, or download it manually from your user account.

For more details, check out the full release notes here!

Live 12.1

➡️Understanding Return Tracks in Ableton Live

Let’s dive into one of the most powerful features in Ableton Live: sends and return tracks. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned producer, mastering sends can open up new creative possibilities and keep your mix clean and organized.

What Are Sends and Returns?

In Ableton, a send refers to a signal path that allows you to route audio from a track to a return track. Return tracks are separate channels where you can add effects (like reverb, delay, or any other audio effect) that multiple tracks can share, without needing to load multiple instances of the same plugin. This not only saves CPU power but also ensures a more cohesive sound when several elements of your mix share the same effect.

Imagine you want to add reverb to three different vocal tracks. Instead of inserting a reverb plugin on each track, you can set up a return track with one reverb and send portions of the vocal tracks’ audio signal to it. Now, each vocal track will get the same reverb treatment, and you have one central place to adjust the effect.

Setting Up Sends and Returns

Setting up sends and return tracks in Ableton Live is easy:

  1. Add a Return Track: To create one, go to the mixer section and right-click (or Ctrl-click on Mac) and choose “Insert Return Track.” By default, Ableton adds two return tracks, labeled “A” and “B,” but you can add as many as you need.

  2. Assign a Send: On each track in your project, you’ll see small knobs (sliders in Arrangement view) labeled “A” and “B.” These correspond to the return tracks. Turn the slider to send a portion of the track’s signal to the return track.

Creative Uses of Sends

Sends aren’t just for traditional effects like reverb or delay. You can get creative by using them in non-traditional ways:

  • Parallel Processing: Want to compress your drums but keep some of the dynamics? Use a return track to create a parallel compression chain, blending the compressed signal with the dry.

  • Creative Delay Chains: Instead of one static delay, create a return track with multiple delay plugins and send various elements of your track to build evolving delay effects that change over time.

Sends and return tracks are indispensable tools for organizing your effects, reducing CPU load, and enhancing your creative options. Whether you’re trying to add space with reverb, or processing sounds in parallel, sends can be your secret weapon for a more professional and dynamic mix.

Sends and Return Tracks

🏃‍♂️Ableton Move: Unleash Limitless Music Creation Anywhere, Anytime!

Ready to break free from the studio? Ableton Move is here to completely redefine how and where you create music. This cutting-edge, standalone powerhouse takes everything you love about Push and injects it with next-level freedom and creativity. It’s not just another tool—it’s your all-in-one music-making revolution.

Create Without Boundaries – Standalone Mode Is Here!

Imagine the power of Ableton Live in your hands, with zero reliance on a computer. That’s what Ableton Move delivers: full, standalone production capabilities. Whether you’re in the studio or on the road, you have the power to make beats, build melodies, and craft full tracks anywhere. Move packs a punch with its built-in CPU, a 64GB SSD, and 8GB RAM—just like a mini production studio that fits in your backpack! This is music creation, anywhere, anytime.

A Creative Weapon – Master Your Sound with Ultimate Control

Ableton Move is engineered for serious creators. Its touch-sensitive pads? Pure fire! Whether you’re finger-drumming your way through a live set or programming sequences, the response and feel will have you fully locked into the groove. With hands-on control of instruments, effects, and loops, you can bend your sounds to your will, shaping your ideas effortlessly. No more clicking around on a laptop—Move’s intuitive layout puts everything at your fingertips, letting you ride your creative wave from start to finish.

Connect, Jam, Perform – All in One Compact Beast

Ableton Move brings serious connectivity to your rig. Want to jam with synths, plug in a mic, or sync with modular gear? Done. It’s packed with audio inputs/outputs, MIDI, CV, and gate options so you can build your hybrid setup and take it to the next level. Move is designed to be the heart of your setup, whether you’re crafting in the studio or performing on stage.

Take Your Workflow to New Heights

Lightweight, portable, and integrated deeply with Ableton Live, Ableton Move is the ultimate tool to expand your creative workflow. It’s not just a controller—it’s a game-changer. From live performers to beatmakers and producers, Move puts the power back in your hands and takes your music to places it’s never been before.

Ready to dive deeper? Check it out here!

☷4 Ableton Tricks on the Triplet Grid

Incorporating triplets into your tracks can add a unique rhythmic flow that stands out from the standard 4/4 beat. Ableton Live offers powerful tools to manipulate timing and groove, and the triplet grid is a great way to explore unconventional rhythms. Here are four tricks you can use to spice up your productions with triplets.

1. Activating the Triplet Grid

Before diving into triplet rhythms, you need to activate the triplet grid in Ableton. In the MIDI or Arrangement View, right-click anywhere in the grid and select “Triplet Grid” from the context menu. You’ll see the grid adjust to show smaller divisions that fit a triplet timing. The shortcut to quickly toggle the triplet grid in Ableton Live is Cmd + 3 (on Mac) or Ctrl + 3 (on Windows).

2. Swing with Triplet Hi-Hats

To create a more natural and bouncy feel, apply triplets to your hi-hat patterns. Start with a simple straight pattern, then switch your grid to triplet mode and manually place hi-hats in every third division. This gives your rhythm a unique swing. You can also adjust velocity to make the triplet groove feel more organic by adding softer hits on weaker beats.

3. Triplet Groove Quantize

If you have MIDI clips that you want to adjust to a triplet feel, use Ableton’s Groove Pool. First, turn on the triplet grid, then right-click on your MIDI clip and choose “Quantize Settings.” Set the grid to a triplet value (e.g., 1/8T or 1/16T) to instantly quantize your notes to a triplet rhythm. This is a quick way to inject a triplet groove into your pre-existing MIDI patterns.

4. Triplet Automation

You can use the triplet grid to create rhythmic automation. Whether you’re automating a filter cutoff, volume, or effects parameters, enabling the triplet grid lets you automate these elements to follow a triplet rhythm. This adds an off-kilter, syncopated feel to your modulations, creating interesting texture and movement in your track.

Triplets are an effective way to break free from predictable rhythms, and Ableton Live makes it easy to explore them. Experiment, and let the triplet grid guide your creative process! Check the video below for demonstration.

🌍 Ableton Live Community
Get to Know Machìna

Machìna is a Korean artist based in Tokyo. Her music is deeply personal and rooted in selfhood, yet best experienced amidst the collective effervescence of a nightclub dance floor.

Don’t miss out on insights about her Ableton Live set-up and how she integrates modular synthesis into her live set. Machìna also describes her thought process in regards to composing electronic music.

⚡[Workflow Trick]
Control Parameters Inside Plugins

Did you know you could control almost all parameters inside any third party plugin in Ableton Live? This means that you can automate those parameters, for example a the cut-off filter inside Serum.

How To Do It?

Click the down arrow next to the wrench tool button to unfold plugin parameters. Click the “Configure” button and then just touch the parameter you’d like to control. You’ll then immediately see a control slider created next to your device view.

Making Custom Tracks

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