Live 8 / 9 Workflow Tip

I was sitting there, trying to figure out how to create a better workflow in Ableton Live 8 when by accident I created a situation that will indeed save me hours of work when sitting down to arrange a song, or even do remixes and DJ Sets (this will work in 9 as well).

I had to post this, so that anyone who uses Ableton can either go ‘duh!’ or ”OMG!!!’. But the fact is, it is a an extreme time saver, so worthy of teaching it to the world of Ableton users.

Let’s get right into it, shall we??

1. Create a MIDI Track and choose the VSTi synth or drum machine you love best. I am personally going to do this with multiple plugins, but you can start with just one. once you have it, pick your favorite patch, something you won’t mind always starting off with. This can be your favorite bank for example. Also, feel free to add an Arpeggiator, EQ, Delay, or whatever you may want to have loaded up with this plugin (I recommend you turn them off after loading them in).

2. Create Empty Midi Clips. You do this by double clicking in the clip area. Live defaults to a one bar clip. You can change the length of these clips in the clip properties. In my example below, I created several types, named them, color-coded them, and set them up ready to be recorded.

3. Name the track. As you can see, mine was named Purity, because that’s the plugin I happen to have loaded (I plan on doing this with all of my favorite set-ups). Now to the left of your clips are your folders and favorite presets. Click on any of the Camera Icons and create a folder in it. I named mine ‘Synth Rack 2013’ for example. Now all you do is drag the entire track you made into that folder, and Live will save it. Not just that, it saves it with your bank, effects settings, and the various clips!

Now anytime I work on a new song, I just reach for that ‘Purity’ preset, and my synth, bank and clips are loaded in.. and the best part? If I decide to use a different plugin, that’s ok. I just drag it over the track name and Live will replace it. I can then save it to a new preset.

Nice! :)

— endpop

Anything Box in SOCAL! | 9.27.2008 | Detroit Bar

Yes, it’s on a Saturday, which is a great thing. The next day you can sleep in, cause after all that partying and and dancing… Well, you know how it gets. I’m not sure exactly why I’m posting this in my blog, but I’m excited. We’re playing CA, and we just got home from rehearsal, which was great! I have a feeling that this show is going to be memorable. We are very grateful to our FANS, Indie 103.1, Meanstreet, Detroit Bar, and Jonesy’s Jukebox for making us want to rock our backyard with our electronic little beats. Seriously. It’s about time, no? Aw shucks… :)

Feel free to copy this post and spread the word, cause here we come!

 

Technorati Tags: Anything Box,Abox,New Music,New Wave,Detroit Bar,9.27.2008,September,27th,2008,SOCAL SHOW,Costa Mesa,California Show!

Endpop TV | Videos

I have somewhat abandoned the idea of doing the movie. The time simply cannot be made, and as a result, the fans are losing out on really cool stuff. So I made a decision to stop while I’m ahead… Or behind, or whatever. So the long form film, Fan Tapes & Time Travel is on hiatus.

The good news is that now I can focus more free time to simply edit single songs and post them more frequently. I set aside most of my days to writing new songs, which is important, you know? So by eliminating a huge source of stress such as this is highly welcome. I can actually breathe!

As of right now, there are about 6 songs ready for posting, and more on the way. It’s actually been more fun to do since the pressure is off. The idea is to make Endpop TV more fun to watch. You can flip through the videos you don’t like, and watch your favorites as much as you want. They will still be on our Podcast page and YouTube as well, so it should actually help us out a little. We’ll see…

Strange Sounds | My Abox Album Habit

Today I went over all the sounds I’ve collected. Well let me re-phrase that. today I went over the sounds I’ve collected for the next Anything Box album, and I’ve been singling out instruments as well. This is part of my ‘clearing the slate’ phase I’ve been in, to make way for more creative pursuits. The reason I didn’t mean to imply that I had gone over all the sounds is simply because I could never actually pull that off in two or three lifetimes! Which is precisely why I decided to end my collection and go back to doing things the old way. That is, make new ones from scratch with a theme in mind.

I have over 750,000 sounds in my library, and over 60% are my own. What the hell was I thinking? Less than one percent could fill all the Abox albums, and those of about 10 other artists as well. So you see the stupidity of doing this right? Seriously, how will I ever even audition them? So the dilemma became somewhat of a burden on my poor brain. What to do, what to do? Nothing. Do nothing. Stand clear.

So today I realized that there are simply less than ten instruments I love playing and programming all the time. I deleted the rest. Gone. If some of them were hardware, I would have given them away. Hitting that delete key was a test of my will. But I did it. And I’m not even done yet. I will do this until every last thing I don’t need is gone. There is no point in keeping stuff simply to own it. Done.

The magic is in what you keep, though. So let’s see… The ESQ stays of course, as it is my favorite thing. And two drum machines I really love to program. Can’t say what they are, or I would have to kill someone (  :) ). Battery and Kontakt as my samplers. For my latest and most prized… Well, sorry, my secret. There’s at least three more.

Why I won’t give the others away? Well…  :)

Claude

Verichip Cops? The Daily Mail Says…

The Daily Mail reports that Cops in good old England will be the first humans to be chipped. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? Well, the whole article is here, but I’ll give you the short version…

“Every single Metropolitan police officer will be ‘microchipped’ so top brass can monitor their movements on a Big Brother style tracking scheme, it can be revealed today.

According to respected industry magazine Police Review, the plan – which affects all 31,000 serving officers in the Met, including Sir Ian Blair – is set to replace the unreliable Airwave radio system currently used to help monitor officer’s movements.

The new electronic tracking device – called the Automated Personal Location System (APLS) – means that officers will never be out of range of supervising officers.

But many serving officers fear being turned into “Robocops” – controlled by bosses who have not been out on the beat in years.

According to service providers Telent, the new technology ‘will enable operators in the Service’s operations centres to identify the location of each police officer’ at any time they are on duty – whether overground or underground.”

So, where the hell are we headed? And why are we sitting here and doing nothing about it?

 

 

 

 

Anything Box | 19

So there it is. Done. I have finally let this out of the bag. And as usual, I am sitting here with trepidation at the outcome. I mean, this isn’t a ‘new album’, you know? This is my life twenty some odd years ago.

But there it is. So now what? Wait and see, wait and see…

anythingbox-nineteen.com 

— Claude S.