Recording - December 2015 - 52
$69, $49, and $99; www.ableton.com
does... out of thousands of sine wave harmonics evolving in real time. It's possible to
program each harmonic one at a time, and there are some plug-ins out there that let
you do it... but Dark Synth applies some very cool tools to the process to make it more
intuitive and fun.
You start with a set of harmonics (called partials, because they are parts of the final
waveform), up to 2048 of them, which can then be manipulated in real time to create
evolving waveforms. You can do this with LFOs, envelopes, or by moving the realtime
XY controller to vary the harmonic structure and balance. This Additive oscillator can
be blended with a Sub oscillator with a choice of waveforms that are often hard to
build additively (noise, for example).
The two blended oscillators are fed through a multimode filter, and then three
effects: overdrive, ring modulation, and Stretch (which quickly alters the balance of
upper harmonics for radical tone shaping). A popup submenu offers graphical interfaces for the LFOs, envelopes for pitch and filter, modulation and global settings... and
yes, if you really want to draw in partials one at a time, you can do that too.
Dark Synth has the distinct timbre of additive synthesis-metallic and smooth, with
ringing harmonics that it's difficult to create any other way-but its evolving waveforms
also put me in mind of wavetable synthesizers like the Waldorf Wave. It's a very cool
and relatively processor-friendly way to add shimmering, glassy sounds to your tracks.
Darwin, from Flatpack, takes a very different approach to sound creation. It uses
Live's built-in sample player/recorder called Simpler as the main building block for its
library of sounds, putting two instances of Simpler into preset Instrument Racks with
eight Macro controls for quick sound editing.
The two Simpler instruments get their sound samples from a large included library
of analog synth waves, acoustic instruments, looped waves, and granular synthesis
Many of our users are familiar with
Ableton Live. Now in version 9, this
DAW combines a linear approach to
recording audio and MIDI with an intuitive live song-creation process based on
firing clips of sampled audio or MIDI
data. Live can use conventional plug-ins
and virtual instruments, but it comes with
a wide variety of built-in music tools as
well. Users can add to their Live capabilities by purchasing new instruments,
effects, sound libraries, and user-configurable devices built in the powerful Max
For Live language. These are sold in the
form of downloadable Live Packs.
There are 150 Live Packs in the online
Ableton Pack Shop as of press time, ranging from free effects and processors to
massive multi-Gigabyte sound libraries.
Here are three you'll want to consider
more closely.
Dark Synth, created for Ableton by
Amazing Noises, is a new instrument
built in Max For Live (included with Live
9 Suite and available as an option for
Live 9 Standard) that works its magic
with additive synthesis. This method creates sound waveforms the way Nature
textures. You can then dial in filter
cutoff and low-end rolloff, add reverb
from a library of 35 patches, and
control attack and decay of the overall sound.
Flatpack actively encourages you
to use Live's Hot Swap feature to get
the most out of Darwin. You can
"pop the hood" and swap in new
audio samples or change reverb presets with ease, greatly expanding the potential of
the presets. Darwin's presets range from ethereal whispers to heavy evolving pads,
with an emphasis on atmospheres and settings for soundtracks and the like. It's a
beautiful collection of sounds, and a great way to learn how to use Simpler and
Instrument Racks while you compose.
Last but not least, we get about as far away from mind-stretching synths and electronic shimmers as we can get, with the fantastic Studio Bass from e-instruments. This
library, a whopping 3 GB of sounds, gives you four complete multisampled variants
on the sound of a Fender Precision bass, with a variety of playing setups, articulations, and tonal tweaks suitable for many different musical genres.
Played with fingers or a pick, with roundwound or flatwound strings, the Studio Bass
instrument includes everything you'd normally expect in a full-on multisampled bass:
legato playing, hammer-ons, pull-offs, mutes, slides, and more. There's even a choice of
left-hand playing positions, and round-robin samples that alternate between index and
middle fingers so you don't get machine-gun effects that rob your bass part of realism.
If this all seems too complicated to do inside a DAW, e-instruments does a lot to
ease the process. Specially designed Macros let you dial in hand position and playing style for low and high velocity notes. Special notes on the keyboard below the
range of the bass let you fire off accent sounds like finger scrapes and fret noises.
The bass is played through an effects chain that includes compression, EQ, reverb,
and tasty amp simulations thanks to Softube's Amp plug-in. The package is topped off
with a set of 28 construction kits, each containing a phrase with simple and more complex variants plus a walking chord progression. If you're not up for creating basslines
note by note just yet, these kits will get you convincing-sounding lines in a hurry.
With its roots in electronic dance music and DJ culture, Live is sometimes characterized as a DAW that's only good for EDM. Studio Bass demonstrates ably that there
are tools available for any style of music you can think of. Just add inspiration!
Part 3: Crafting With Content
Ableton Live Packs: Amazing
Noises Dark Synth, Flatpack
Darwin, e-instruments Studio
Bass
http://www.ableton.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2015
Contents
Recording - December 2015 - Intro
Recording - December 2015 - Cover1
Recording - December 2015 - Cover2
Recording - December 2015 - 1
Recording - December 2015 - 2
Recording - December 2015 - 3
Recording - December 2015 - 4
Recording - December 2015 - 5
Recording - December 2015 - Contents
Recording - December 2015 - 7
Recording - December 2015 - 8
Recording - December 2015 - 9
Recording - December 2015 - 10
Recording - December 2015 - 11
Recording - December 2015 - 12
Recording - December 2015 - 13
Recording - December 2015 - 14
Recording - December 2015 - 15
Recording - December 2015 - 16
Recording - December 2015 - 17
Recording - December 2015 - 18
Recording - December 2015 - 19
Recording - December 2015 - 20
Recording - December 2015 - 21
Recording - December 2015 - 22
Recording - December 2015 - 23
Recording - December 2015 - 24
Recording - December 2015 - 25
Recording - December 2015 - 26
Recording - December 2015 - 27
Recording - December 2015 - 28
Recording - December 2015 - 29
Recording - December 2015 - 30
Recording - December 2015 - 31
Recording - December 2015 - 32
Recording - December 2015 - 33
Recording - December 2015 - 34
Recording - December 2015 - 35
Recording - December 2015 - 36
Recording - December 2015 - 37
Recording - December 2015 - 38
Recording - December 2015 - 39
Recording - December 2015 - 40
Recording - December 2015 - 41
Recording - December 2015 - 42
Recording - December 2015 - 43
Recording - December 2015 - 44
Recording - December 2015 - 45
Recording - December 2015 - 46
Recording - December 2015 - 47
Recording - December 2015 - 48
Recording - December 2015 - 49
Recording - December 2015 - 50
Recording - December 2015 - 51
Recording - December 2015 - 52
Recording - December 2015 - 53
Recording - December 2015 - 54
Recording - December 2015 - 55
Recording - December 2015 - 56
Recording - December 2015 - 57
Recording - December 2015 - 58
Recording - December 2015 - 59
Recording - December 2015 - 60
Recording - December 2015 - 61
Recording - December 2015 - 62
Recording - December 2015 - 63
Recording - December 2015 - 64
Recording - December 2015 - 65
Recording - December 2015 - 66
Recording - December 2015 - 67
Recording - December 2015 - 68
Recording - December 2015 - 69
Recording - December 2015 - 70
Recording - December 2015 - 71
Recording - December 2015 - 72
Recording - December 2015 - Cover3
Recording - December 2015 - Cover4
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