Ableton Random Events

[chrisso]

I bought Ableton Live a couple of months ago after years of using Logic and Pro Tools.
I've got my head around building ideas into songs in session view. But now I want to punctuate the looping clip grooves with odd synth noises, or percussion hits.
Do I have to switch to arrangement view and record to do that?

[madATme]

You can do them in both. But never totaly random you can make loops with an odd size so you get kind of random timings, this goes for session view. I arrangement view you can of corse put your noises and stuff wherever you want.If you are trying to do this in audio you might want to record it in arrangement view and than consolidate so you can do the loopsize more comfortable

Ps: allways make a "Resampling" channel if you work with audio alot

[chrisso]

Thanks.
Yeah, I was meaning sounds that might happen only two or three times in a whole arrangement.
What would a 'resampling channel' do?

(I'm so green about Ableton still)

[Esh]

resampling basically records whats currently playing through ableton. whether its a solo'd channel, a group or the whole shibang.

Then you can use the resulting audio file in whatever way you want, whether you copy it to another channel, or return the resampling channel to a normal one. Completely up to you

[madATme]

I'd definitely would resampling these things then you can resample it and then delete the channel.
Here's a short how to on that http://www.youtube.com/embed/Wv9f6GWssFU
Sorry guys i am to stupid to get the damn video running in this page tried it like this "(youtube)Wv9f6GWssFU(/youtube)" Didn't work with this "[" instead of this "("

[sam]

Just a few ideas and you've probably already thought of most of them, but I find this sort of thing quite interesting so I'll just put them here I expect there are some much easier ways to do this sort of thing too.

A drum rack in combination with the random midi effect in Ableton will randomly select between drum pads, but I suppose the actual hit locations would still be statically programmed in, but it should be possible to make them seem a bit more random with some tinkering.

Parameters can be modulated with a noise oscillator for randomness. Lots of synths have a noise source and some have random arps or the ability to modulate the arp with noise.

Pure Data can deal out random MIDI comprehensively, but it would need to talk to Ableton via MIDI as well I think which could be restricting depending on what you wanted to do.

If just MIDI is needed there are all kinds of option other than PD. There are a few MIDI translator programs like Midi Pipe that can intercept and manipulate or generate random MIDI, and there are VST random MIDI generators of different kinds.

Max for Live would work too and could possibly be the most flexible of all randomizers in Ableton, but it's expensive if that's all it gets used for.

Is it easy to do this kind of thing in Logic and Pro Tools?

[chrisso]

Thanks guys.
I'm not trying to create random patterns or randomness in clips, I'm trying to break out of the repetitive, clip based workflow of Ableton, while keeping some of my elements repetitive (drums, bass etc).
I guess 'random' was a bad term to use in my OP.
I have a six minute track that I'm half happy with, but it needs singular synth moments sprinkled about, and not on the beat, or every 4 to 8 bars. Like in individual spots, a couple of times in the arrangement.
Yes, it's easier to do in a Linear DAW, as you just spin to the location you want to place the sound, record it, and it stays there. You can copy and paste it anywhere else, randomly in your song, or record a series of random events in random positions.
I hear this stuff in Techno where I know the producer is an Ableton user. I'm just an Ableton newbie and wondered if there were any tips, before I switch to the arrange view and start overdubbing like I would in Logic.

(Still, I'm always learning and the resampling technique is something I hadn't thought of)

[ozias_leduc]

why do you want to do this in session view?

it makes far more sense to do stuff like this over in arrangement view; just as you would in any other linear daw

[sam]

You can use follow actions in session view and use the 'other' and 'any' launch types with the a and b 'chance' controls.

Check out the bottom of this article for specific details:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul07/a ... h_0707.htm

[sam]

why do you want to do this in session view?

it makes far more sense to do stuff like this over in arrangement view; just as you would in any other linear daw

Totally does. It's a lot easier when you have the whole song structured to click in some random sounding events.

[chrisso]

why do you want to do this in session view?

I don't, but my track is unarranged and in component parts still.

[chrisso]

It's a lot easier when you have the whole song structured to click in some random sounding events.

Yes, as I have just discovered.
I recorded my random bits in Arrange View this afternoon, but I can't hear them back in Session view.
So I guess free flowing, abstract bits will have to wait until I'm further along the track building road in future. Like after I've recorded my arrangement into the arrange window.

Happy with my random bits, and they'll still be there when I record my clips across from session view later.

[ozias_leduc]

have you tried consolidating the clips (highlight all , ctrl-J / apple-J) to make one big clip, and dropping that back into session view?

[chrisso]

Thanks.
Yes, I was thinking I could do that.
I might try and work on my standard clips a bit more. See if I can finish an arrangement.
If I need inspiration in session view, I'll consolidate my random bits into a clip.

Thanks for all the help. Still finding my way in Live.