Benjamin Ang (www.cosmicarmchair.

com)
 Drums Descriptions
Bass Screaming
Lead Buzzing
Pluck Fat
Saw / Super Saw Resonant
Arpeggios (Arps) Ambient
Pads / Strings Airy
Brass Wobbly
Keys, Bells
Effects TRY THEM
 3. Arm the track (click
1. Choose Instruments red button)

4. Switch on 5. Start
metronome recording,
2. Select
instrument Then stop

6. Click on the
clip to see your
notes

7. You can edit the notes

that you have played
 Double click the clip
Menu
Edit
Quantize settings
Choose your resolution

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

1. Choose
blank MIDI
3
track

4
 2

3
 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