Wednesday Session

Last night was my scheduled home studio time at night (from about 8pm to midnight). Again I found myself filling out my knowledge of Ableton Live!

I have been wondering about different approaches to using Live! for performances of my music (mostly the dance music) and how to best configure the layout, effects, and arrangement. After some digging around on Google and tinkering with my own creations, I have discovered there are some requirements of my own that don't necessarily fit the mold for wanting to use Live! as a venue for my music.

While I could use audio samples of the instruments I use in Reason, I don't like the idea of having my instrument packages (combinators and the like) set up such that the depth and ambiance of effects and expression are lost to hard starts and stops of samples. I haven't looked at Live! enough to know if I can have loop sections within an audio clip and then have the natural release of notes at the end of the sample play after it stops (i.e. if I have a Rhodes organ with a delay or reverb in Reason, I want the natural release of the instrument and all effects to taper off as they should-- instead of instantly stopping all sound at the end of the sample).

So unless Live! has this feature, I would have to set up MIDI clips for each of the instruments I use from the Reason rack. It makes for a very crowded looking Live! arrangement, but if I add in a "song" separator for each of the packages I put together for a song-- I can more easily set up the next song to start mixing into. HMMMmmmm.. I definitely have some tinkering to do.