Benjamin Ang (www.cosmicarmchair.com)

Drums Bass Lead Pluck Saw / Super Saw

Arpeggios (“Arps”) Pads / Strings Brass Keys, Bells Effects

Descriptions Screaming Buzzing Fat Resonant Ambient Airy Wobbly

TRY THEM

1. Choose Instruments

2. Select instrument

3. Arm the track (click red button)

4. Switch on metronome

7. You can edit the notes that you have played

5. Start recording, Then stop

6. Click on the clip to see your

notes

Double click the clip Menu Edit Quantize settings Choose your resolution ¼ 1/8 1/16

Attack : makes the sound start slower or faster

Decay: makes the sound shorter or longer; set Sustain to zero to really hear the difference

Sustain: makes it continue while you hold the note down

Release: makes it fade away faster or slower

Filter, cutoff frequency makes the sound brighter or more muffled

This is for High Pass Filter; there are Low Pass Filters that filter out the low end

Resonance imaging makes the sound more squelchy, like Acid Bass

Try adjusting both the Filter cutoff and Resonance at the same time

Make your sound move with LFO

You can map the LFO to either the Amplitude or the Filter

Rate changes how fast the movement is

Delay makes the movement start later

Try the different shapes of LFO

Sample and hold shape LFO mapped to filter cutoff, and with high Resonance

This makes the notes glide from one to the next

Use the Filter envelope to make your own builds and elevators and explosions

If your synthesizer doesn't have one, Ableton provides it

MIDI Effects - Arpeggiator

This takes the notes that puts hold down and plays them as a broken chord or arpeggio

2

3

1. Choose blank MIDI

track

4

2

3

1

Drag a sample from the Browser into Simpler. Adjust the Transpose to tune it to the correct

key - you will need another instrument to compare with.

If the sample is too soft, you can increase the Volume from -12 to around -3.

By default, the Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release work on Volume - in the same way that we learned in Synths.

Usually you want to increase the Release to make it fade off more naturally.

One difference is that the sound may not continue for long when you hold down a note, because it plays once only. To make it loop, you need to adjust the Loop and Length - this can take a long time to get right.

Switch on the Filter button (by default it's "Off") so you can change the Frequency and Resonance. At this point, the Frequency Envelope (ADSR) is not activated (the check box next to the Filter tab in the Envelope section is not ticked), so you are hearing purely what the Freq and Res knobs are doing.

Increase the Velocity sensitivity so that the Filter responds differently according to how hard you hit the keys (on a musical keyboard, not the computer keyboard)

Experiment with the different Types of Filters e.g. the LPF eliminates bass frequencies, useful if the sample is too muddy.

Increase the LFO amount and switch on the LFO button.

Change the Rate from Hz to follow the beat - either 1/2 or 1/4 to hear a slower change, or 1/8 to 1/16 to hear a faster change

You can even make the sound Pan from left to right following the LFO

Finally there is Glide (like Portamento) and Spread (amount of stereo image - needs good headphones or monitors to feel it)

Keys Metal poles e.g. in the lift Glass bottles Plastic bottles Metal bottles Bicycle bell Washing machine in spin cycle Fridge door alarm Rumbling of a bus

Record using lo-fi devices e.g. mobile phone, because you don't need to get the most accurate sound recording

Use the samples out of range i.e. too high or too low, which creates unrecognizable sounds

Make loops of unexpected parts of the sound to create strange textures

Record any time any where!

Drag samples from the Browser into Impulse You can play them using the white keys on

the keyboard, or the ASDF keys on your computer keyboard

(if you can't hear, you may be in the wrong octave, use Z and X keys to adjust)

You can build up an entire percussion section from non-drum sounds OR you can pick and choose your favourite kick drums, snares, crashes from different sources

Every drum pad can be individually tuned, volume adjusted, filtered, panned etc.

Lesson 3 – building up your song / track with structures