The art form of scratching has been around for several decades and first came to prominence shortly after the birth of turntablism in the mid 1970s. With the emergence of digital DJing however, it seemed like scratching would die a quick death. Luckily this wasn't the case as many jog wheels on today’s DJ Controllers are more than capable of producing that vinyl scratch sound. So where do Ableton DJs fit in? Well if you have one of these aforementioned DJ controllers or indeed a turntable itself, then you can easily incorporate scratching into your Live sets. In fact for beginners, Ableton possesses a unique advantage over solely using a jogwheel or turntable type setup. Let's take a closer look.
14 Ableton Live secret tips and tricks; 14 Ableton Live secret tips and tricks. Ableton Live has developed from a cool but limited audio-only loop sequencer into one of the most popular DAWs on the planet. Of course you can make some audio and video job inside Live itself. But if you talk about syncing visuals (including video footage playing) to audio, you'll find answer by working with tempo & OSC protocol probably. Softwares like Max/MSP (and th.
Now we aren’t going to get into the ins and outs of scratching, but if you are a relative novice who wants to add professional sounding scratches to your sets then you may very well find this trick useful.
Mastering scratching take a lot of practice, most notably the ability to coordinate your ‘record’ hand (which does the scratching) and your mixer hand (which uses the crossfader to cut the audio in and out to tighten up your sound. Using the crossfader creatively also adds more rhythmical patterns to your scratches. If mastering this seems too daunting to start with, there is a workaround in the form of Ableton’s clip automation. By using a dummy clip in Live, you can draw volume envelopes beforehand to automatically act as the crossfader while you scratch live. Now before traditional turntablists shout insults at me, I’m not advocating this should replace the skill involved in using the crossfader. However it is a great way to achieve great sounding scratches by solely using your record hand, leaving your other hand free for adding FX, finger drumming or even waving at the crowd.
Setup
Firstly it is important to be set properly for scratching. On my controller I will have my hot cue set to the start of a clean isolated sound, usually a vocal accapella. It is also a good idea to set the other cue buttons on your controller to the start of other suitable sounds so you can switch between scratch sounds on the fly. (I use the Reloop Beatpad as its jogwheels excellently replicate the sound of vinyl manipulation when touched. Also its integration with DJay and Spotify means that I now have access to 20 million songs.)
In Ableton, along with my normal audio /MIDI tracks in my set, I like to create a separate track to host the live scratch sound. To route the audio from your scratching source to this track in Live you will need an audio interface with at least two inputs. Connect the outputs of your turntable/controller to these inputs and configure the I/O settings as shown below and record enable the track. You should now hear your scratch audio coming through to Live.
You will then need to route this audio to another track on which the ‘crossfader’ clip can be placed. Duplicate the track and set the new track to receive the audio from the original track. Set ‘Monitor’ to ‘In’ on the new track and ‘Monitor to ‘Off’ on the original. Next place a clip with no audio on the new track and set the loop to four bars.
Launch the clip and start to scratch. The audio won’t be affected as the clip’s volume envelope hasn’t been touched yet. We will soon change that. In the clip’s Clip View click the envelope button. From the Envelope pane choose Mixer and Volume from the relevant drop-down menus. We will start off by drawing in a simple pattern. Use the pen tool (the keyboard shortcut is B) to cut out the volume every 1/8th note. Launch the clip again and scratch in time with the beat (a forward scratch every 1/4 note is a good starting point) The audio will now drop out every time you move the jogwheel back to the start position as it would if you were to use the crossfader to cut out the sound in this way.
Next duplicate the clip but on this version cut out the volume every 1/16 note on the clip. Launch the clip and start to scratch, this time with a forward scratch every 1/8 note. You should be left with a very quick, tight scratch sound.
Same scratch with 16th note automation:
![With With](https://cdn-resources.ableton.com/80bA26cPQ1hEJDFjpUKntxfqdmG3ZykO/static/images/manual/en/SeveralMidiTracksPlayi_opt1.0e354198d9ac.png)
You can hear from the above examples that the second clip is a lot tighter and cleaner sounding.
Experimentation
In order to get the best sounding scratches in your live set, you will need to do some experimentation beforehand to see which envelope patterns work best with which type of scratches. For example, you could leave just the attack of every scratch so you get that stab scratch sound or perhaps let the sound last a bit longer to get a chirp scratch. You could also draw in combinations of scratches until you find the perfect fit. The world is your oyster.
Have a listen to your scratches without the dummy clip and try to determine which parts of the sound would be best left in and which would be chopped out. When finished you should have a list of clips that you can launch on the fly while scratching. Your crossfader hand has nothing else to do after all.
This is what a more advanced scratch sounds like with no automation:
This is what the same scratch sounds like with the automation as shown in the pic:
The possibilities are of course endless and with bit of practice and preparation, you can really use these ‘scratch’ dummy clips to add an extra dimension to your Live sets. As mentioned, it shouldn’t be used as replacement for the crossfader but could be thought of as a performance enhancement tool or learning aid to becoming a scratching master.
Related Videos
Not long ago, I had the chance of not only writing a review of, but also the pleasure of getting to teach a course on Liquid Rhythm—An amazing, MIDI, drum editing application from WaveDNA that can act in standalone, and as a VST/AU plug-in. When working through a unique Max to Live Integration, it makes Ableton, suddenly AI based and freakishly awesome at putting out sick beats.
Recently, WaveDNA added an optional upgrade to a new, MIDI editing, best friend to work along side of Liquid Rhythm: Liquid Music. This logical next step, or optional upgrade, for the WaveDNA family allows one to manipulate basic MIDI clips in a similar fashion to the way Liquid Rhythm works with drum clips, made with the Ableton Drum Racks. But now, along with sick beats, Liquid Music can spit out amazing arpeggios, huge chord progressions, and complex melodies that would normally take a while to put together. Let’s take a look at this exciting new direction for WaveDNA, and see just how successful it really is.
So, What Is Liquid Music, Again?
If you stop reading this article, for a minute, and imagine, in your mind, the most intuitive arpeggiator ever, that actually contains a little robot within, and assists you in intelligently coming up with amazing, original melodies, you’ll have a firm idea of Liquid Music.
By using a unique system known as Chord Tracks, along with the already famous Rhythm Editor of Liquid Rhythm, it becomes extremely easy to paint, or draw in crazy melodies that sound amazing, without spending all night in a hunched position, dropping in notes, while you listen to the same melody over and over again.
You can, of course, import your own melodies directly over into your host DAW, but with Ableton, there’s some very special, extra integration, thanks to Max for Live. When Max for Live Integration is in effect, you need merely select a clip within Ableton, and when using Liquid Rhythm, the drum pattern will automatically appear within Liquid Rhythm/Music and you can begin editing.
When you start adding in preset Harmonies from the Harmony Builder, you can quickly build up some sick chord progressions playing parts that are not humanly possible.
With the new Liquid Music layer added, there’s an additional component. The Import Wizard analyzes a regular MIDI clip/melodic clip and then attempts to import what’s being analyzed over into Liquid Music, from Ableton Live. This is odd, considering that drums don’t require this, and slightly annoying, considering that the Import Wizard is not always spot on. If you’re tie-ing a note from one chord to another, the Wizard does not seem to be able to read the chord changes, from measure to measure. It just assumes that it’s the same chord, carrying on for several measures. Thankfully, the editing is really sweet with Liquid Harmony, and when you start adding in preset Harmonies from the Harmony Builder, you can quickly build up some sick chord progressions playing parts that are not humanly possible.
Skeletons in the Harmony Builder
Within the Harmony Builder, as I mentioned, there is a massive list of presets that are, in fact, full MIDI performances/MIDI files. However, you can deselect the Key, the Chords played, and even Rhythm, if you want. Once you drop this performance, minus Key, Chords, over yours, Liquid Harmony converts between differences.
For example: If I was playing a progression that is C to Am to D#, to G, Liquid Music does not change the chords, it just changes the Rhythm, if the Rhythm Lock is unselected. If the Key layer is locked, none of the chords are changed, period. So, I can build up a progression, and then bring it into Liquid Music, and have my robot help me build that progression up with sick, melodic rhythms and octaves. I can draw around in the paint brush without thinking about it, and the notes never change. It’s like being a kid again!
Of course, the Harmony Builder is more than just a bunch of presets. It is composed of the Preset Page, Sketch Page, Chords, Voice, Rhythm and Key. It’s within these pages that you are able tweak both existing presets, and build your own. The Rhythm page, for example allows you to come up with quick, rhythmic patterns that you can then, through use of the Paint tool, draw in to the existing clip. There are also tons of preset rhythms, and a Scramble button, so if you just want it to make something up for you, it can!
Or, another example: The Chord page helps you build and refine your progression, within the clip, and even gives you suggestions, based on what’s being played. It’s an extremely neat way of not only seeing music, but also being able to lay a foundation. It also has a Scramble button.
The Voice Page, aside from allowing you to control the different voices of your clip along with clip and direction, also features an active arpeggiator. This is where things get extremely cool, as the melodies, harmonies and plain MIDI you build up can, to some extent, feature ongoing randomness that arpeggiators excel at. And, keep you melodies sounding big!
BeatBuilder
You also get to use the BeatBuilder to dream up some even more advanced rhythms, exactly in the same fashion as you would in Liquid Rhythm. Once your progression is in, and you’ve got some chords that sound right, you can start dropping in music molecules (as they are known in the WaveDNA world) that both visually, and audibly illustrate rhythm in a very unique way.
There’s no difference, as far as I was able to tell, within this department of Liquid Music.
Conclusion
Thankfully, and like Ableton, there are plenty of tips to point you in the right direction on how to use Liquid Music. But, I will say that I was disappointed in the lack of video tutorials, upon shipping. Liquid Rhythm had a ton of material to ensure that you really understood how to use it. Liquid Music has one. And, while it gives you a good, general idea, there’s a lot more to this. The manual, does go into a good bit of depth, however. So, you won’t be out there in the dark, on your own. And, WaveDNA have always been good about supporting their products. So, I’m sure we’ll see some videos soon.
In closing, I’d like to say that this is one of the first programs that I’ve worked with that you can really just drop in, and draw in amazing melodies that really do go beyond what most of us can come up with, without spending hours. It’s also extremely gratifying to be able to use the BeatBuilder for creating bass lines, big trance chord progressions, and other forms of synthesized madness. I would love to see more love in the MIDI editing department. Currently, it appears that you are unable to deselect the Paintbrush, so it’s always active. If you want to edit an individual note, it’s easier to do it in Ableton.
All in all, I kind of felt like this release was rushed out without some of the polish I would have expected. But, what it does, at its core, is astounding. I am excited to see the updates, and hope that this will cement a really powerful music application.
Price: $129 includes Liquid Rhythm ($59 upgrade for existing Liquid Rhythm owners). Free 30-day trial available.
Pros: An amazing app for quickly and easily building up complex melodic parts in less time than it takes you to make a sandwich.
Cons: Could use more tutorial videos. Would love some more polish in the MIDI editing department.
Web:https://www.wavedna.com/liquid-music/ableton-live-plugin-max-for-live/