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Garnish Music Production School

A07_Recording_Basics

AlunaGeorge

Recording Basics [recording-basics]

Up until now we’ve been reasonably happy to populate Live’s Session and Arrangement Views with pre-recorded content. But yes, now the time has come to record some things for ourselves!

Lucky for you, it’s pretty easy. But fair warning: at this point, it’s probably a good idea to be ready to turn on the metronome and to have a set of headphones nearby. You should also be acquainted with the concepts in the chapter entitled, [+Getting Stuff In There][getting-stuff-in-there]. It explains the difference between things like MIDI and audio tracks. We are going to be working with both.

Get P.A.M.P.E.R.’d
Here’s what’s going to happen in this chapter.

  • P repare: gather our gear and set up tracks where we can record
  • A rm tracks: ready them for recording
  • M onitor: ensure that we can hear what we are doing
  • P lay: rehearse the part
  • E valuate: make sure we are happy with the what, where, and how we are recording
  • R ecord some crap! Pamper!

All set? Let’s make sure…

Preparing To Record

Recording Checklist

For MIDI:

[ ] MIDI controller (or activate computer MIDI keyboard)
[ ] MIDI interface (if not included in controller)
[ ] An Instrument (we will use “Simpler”)

For Audio:

[ ] Something to record (we will use vocals)
[ ] Something to record with (a microphone — in a pinch, use the one built into your computer)
[ ] A microphone preamplifier and an audio interface (not necessary if just using the onboard computer microphone)
[ ] Headphones! (so you don’t end up recording the clicking of the metronome, other existing tracks, or creating a feedback loop)

Save
Check? Great! Before we begin, it’s a good idea to save the Set. Go to the File menu and choose Save…. File this under “we shouldn’t have to say it, but it needs to be said”. Not only is this generally a smart thing to do, it will also create a folder where all the assets (recorded audio files, etc.) can go.

Making Tracks

For the following example, we will be using the Browser to load a Simpler Instrument Plugin preset. We will walk you through it, but rest assured that:

  • Instruments are covered in [+Instrument Basics][instrument-basics]
  • Browser and presets are discussed in [+Housekeeping][housekeeping]
  • Simpler is discussed in both [+Synthesis][synthesis] and [Slicing Samples][slicing-samples]

So don’t panic. For the time being, you can find a Simpler preset in the browser. Let’s pick something straightforward like a piano.

Remember you can preview the Simpler preset while the preview button is illuminated.

auditioning presets with the preview button

Making MIDI Tracks

A fresh Live Set will open with two MIDI tracks and two audio tracks at the ready. You may use these or create new ones.

New tracks may be created using either the contextual menu in one of the mixer drop areas, ⌘ + T (audio), ⇧ + ⌘ + T (MIDI), or by dropping a Simpler instance (found in the Instruments category in the Browser) on to an existing MIDI track or either of the mixer drop areas.

Arming Tracks

Now when you play your MIDI keyboard you should hear be hearing sound from the Simpler instrument! Why?

Well, in part because you got lucky…

In order for you to hear anything as you play on a track, that track must be armed. Fortunately for you, Live’s default behavior for MIDI tracks is to arm them automatically as you create them. Try it. If you create another, you’ll hear that one too.

But — when you go back to the first one, you’ll see that luck will have run out. You will have to arm it manually. No big deal. To do that, just click the little red button on the bottom of the track (Session View) or on the right side of the track mixer section (Arrangement View).


If you don’t hear anything, check if the MIDI indicator lights show activity when you play. That means your MIDI devices are working.

A lack of sound is most likely due to a track that is not armed or having loaded an instrument without having any sound or preset for that instrument loaded.

Monitoring

Arming the track is what allows you to monitor it (hear it). This is true regardless of whether it is MIDI or audio; however, with audio, Live’s default behavior is not automatic.

This is ostensibly a good thing, because when you take a microphone, amplify it, and play it out loud (near the same microphone) you risk a truly atrocious sound known as feedback. So yeah, let’s avoid that at all costs.

As we are on the topic, one common solution to this problem is to monitor signals somewhere other than your master output. You might choose to set up a special set of outputs (if you have them) and monitor those through headphones. Problem solved! This is done while viewing the I/O section of the mixer. There, you may choose a different set of cue outputs.

That’s one way to handle this. Another option is simply to monitor in headphones and turn off your speakers as you record.

Feedback isn’t the only issue. If you are using a microphone and playing your track in the room with it, you’ll end up with some sound from the speakers bleeding into the mic. We’d rather keep everything separate. And you probably don’t want your metronome forever clicking away in the background because it leaked onto your vocal track.

Inputs and Outputs

MIDI
Each track’s output is set in its I/O (input/output) section. Setting this to master (the default) is what makes the track play on the master channel — and ultimately out of your speakers. Similarly, the input setting tells Live where to find that signal.

With MIDI, this isn’t really an issue. While you can certainly tell Live to take MIDI only from a single MIDI controller (very-most-favorite), there aren’t many reasons not to also accept MIDI data from other controllers too (your second and third most-favorites). It’s unlikely they’ll end up being played by accident.

AUDIO
With audio, it’s a different story. Unless you are only using your computer’s built-in microphone (where you don’t really have much in the way of options), you need to be able to tell Live which input to record. Take the example of a well-equipped, professional studio. Here, it wouldn’t be uncommon to encounter upwards of twenty-four microphones plugged in at a time. So imagine if you have a designated track for snare drum and another for kick drum, you are definitely going to want to get the right signal onto the right track. This is where we do that. Assign the appropriate input to your audio track to ensure you are recording the right thing onto the right track.

If your audio inputs do not appear in the input list, configure them from the preferences window (⌘ + ,) or choose configure from the drop-down input menu. Make sure any inputs you need are enabled (orange). You can even name them here! Now you can be sure that you won’t end up with didgeridoo recorded on your xylophone track.

At this point you should be set up to record MIDI or audio, as there are no other appreciable differences between the two. Just make sure that you have armed and routed (setting inputs and outputs) your audio on audio tracks and MIDI on MIDI tracks.

Play

Now you are just about ready to go! You’ve got the right flavor of track set up. You’ve set its input (if it’s an audio track). You’ve armed it. It’s time to give it a go.

To start, we recommend you choose an empty clip slot on an armed Session View track. But you may also work in Arrangement View. If so, take a moment to make sure your insert marker is placed meaningful somewhere along the timeline. It can be moved by clicking anywhere in the clip area of the Arrangement View.

Evaluate

Essentially, this section exists just to make it spell pamper. The only thing that stands between you and recording is either this:

or this:

But as long as we are on the subject, does something sound off? Are you noticing a weird little delay between the time you speak and the sound returning to your headphones? If so, chances are you’ve discovered digital audio’s dirty little secret: latency.

Latency
In the analogue world (electrically speaking), everything moves at light-speed. But once you substitute a computer, you create a significant bottleneck. This is also discussed in [+Audio Engineering: Transduction, Gain, and Digital Audio][audio-engineering-transduction-gain-and-digital-audio]. Essentially, your computer needs to take a ‘picture’ of sound before it can play it back to you. Technically, it has to ‘decode’ that picture too before it leaves the computer. That takes a bit of time.

Latency can be seriously distracting. It can be minimized, usually to the point where it is negligible, by adjusting the buffer size setting in the audio section of Live’s preferences window.

This setting represents a constant compromise that exists between an acceptable level of latency (let’s say, below 20 milliseconds) and your computer’s ability to not choke on itself. Lowering the buffer size will lower the latency, but it will also place more demand on the computer to take those ‘pictures’ and ‘decode’ them faster. You can quickly reach a point where the computer can’t handle it. It will sound terrible: crackling and popping as it does its best impression of a bad night of karaoke where the singer, even when faking the words, can’t keep up. As demands increase on the computer, the fragile balance between latency and bandwidth may become a moving target. It’s best you understand that now.

Record

When you hit that record button (the one on the empty clip slot of an armed track, or the one on the control bar), there are two things you are going to want to know. First, the metronome:

Metronome

It’s pretty straightforward. Here is the metronome button:

Its settings, including the count-in, are accessed directly from here. The metronome is what is responsible for making sure you don’t sound like a toddler crashing their tricycle when you start adding things like drums. Love it and it will love you in return.

Recording into Session vs. Arrangement View

Recording into a Clip (Session View)
With an armed track, empty clip slots will sport record buttons instead of play buttons. Click one, wait for the count-in (if you enabled one), and off you go. Can stop by pressing spacebar or with the stop all clips button (master track). You won’t get stop buttons back on your armed track until you disarm it.

When you stop, your recorded clip will be visible in the clip viewer (if the detail view is being shown). There will be plenty of time to edit this later. We will discuss it in [Clip Editing: The Basics][clip-editing-the-basics]. But you may need to adjust the loop brace if your recorded clip isn’t looping correctly. After all, looping correctly is what the Session View is all about.

Our old friend, the launch quantization menu can also be instrumental in making these looping clips play nicely without extra fuss. If you know that you will be recording a four-bar loop, you may want to consider adjusting that setting accordingly.

There you have it! You may have noticed some other candidates for recording buttons on the control bar. The big one, the arrangement record button we will discuss next, but there are two others worthy of some attention at this point.

Session Record Button
The small session record button on the control bar allows you to record into any selected clip (or currently playing clip) on any/all armed tracks. This is also how you might record onto more than one clip at once.

Odds and Ends

Capture
The capture button (just next-door) is pretty cool. Live is always listening for MIDI. If you open a fresh Set, load a MIDI instrument, and happen to stumble onto an idea that you wish you had recorded, press this button and you wish has come true. Live will capture the recording into a new clip (MIDI only) — retroactively — and make a smart guess as to the tempo and loop point for what you played. This works even when you’ve already been working on a Set, however Live will (thankfully) leave the tempo alone.

Recording into Arrangement View (from the control bar)
Arrangement recording is all that is left to discuss, and there’s not much to it. As with Session View, recording begins after a count-in (where applicable) and clips are created in the Arrangement View at the insert marker’s position.

Record Quantization
This topic is somewhat misplaced. The subject of quantization is discussed in detail in the chapter: [+Quantize and Groove: Finessing Performances][quantize-and-groove-finessing-performances]. But it deserves an honorable mention here. Record quantization (not to be confused with launch quantization) adds a step which is automatically applied after recording a MIDI clip. It analyzes the rhythmic timing of your performance and adjusts it so that every note conforms to a grid resolution of your choosing.
We recommend trying this at a sixteenth note resolution to start, but use this sparingly. You can always quantize later. Note that the automatic quantization creates an additional undo step. Thus, pressing ⌘ + Z (Mac) or ⌃ + Z (PC) will remove the quantization on the first press, and undo the recording on the second. After that, it’s ‘baked into the cake’, if you will.

Resampling
With all our discussion of inputs and outputs, you may have wondered about some of the other options in the I/O list. As we mentioned in [+Getting Stuff In There][getting-stuff-in-there], one source of content for Live is… Live. What we mean by this is that Live can record itself. Any track can be set to take input from another. Additionally, by choosing the resample input, you may record the output of your entire set to a new clip. Needless to say, this creates some exciting possibilities. But to make the most of them, we still have some additional concepts to master!

And there you have it! If you are concerned about topics like loop recording, overdubbing, punching, etc., fear not. Those will be covered in [+Recording: Punching and Overdubs][recording-punching-overdubs-and-looping]. For now, give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve recorded something! You are fast on your way to making your next masterpiece in Ableton Live!

Tempo Following

Tempo Following allows you to have Live’s global tempo match your incoming audio signal. To activate, open the preference section and select Tempo Follower under the Link/Tempo/Midi tab. Make sure to select the appropriate audio channel.

Handy Keyboard Shortcuts

  • CREATE AUDIO TRACK: ⌘ + T or (⌃ + T on PC)
  • CREATE MIDI TRACK: ⇧ + ⌘ + T or (⇧ + ⌃ + T on PC)
  • UNDO: ⌘ + Z (Mac) or ⌃ + Z (PC)
  • RECORD: [F9]
  • PLAY: spacebar
  • ARM MULTIPLE TRACKS: click arm button while holding (Mac) or (PC)
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