Student Spotlight – Nolo Grace | Debut Single “Wake Up” – feat. Sean Kingston
Nolo Grace shares inside her process to create her debut single “Wake Up” feat. Sean Kingston, creating during lockdown, and leaving the corporate world behind. Watch our full Interview Watch our full interview with Nolo Grace discussing her debut single “Wake Up” – feat. Sean Kingston Listen to “Wake Up” here on Spotify. About Nolo Grace Nolo Grace is a Korean-American singer/songwriter/producer making her debut with “Wake Up,” featuring pop artist Sean Kingston ( known for his Billboard Hot 100 song “Beautiful Girls” and other hit songs like “Fire Burning” and “Eenie Meanie.”) Nolo Grace charted an unconventional path into music. After building a business career as a successful corporate executive in New York City, she decided to leave that behind and traveled the world as a digital nomad before moving to Los Angeles in 2017. As she discovered a path of her own outside of the corporate world, …
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All About Max for Live Packs | PitchLoop 89
All About Max for Live Packs | PitchLoop 89 Created in collaboration with Robert Henke, this Ableton 11 Max for Live device is based on an early digital effects processor. The outcome is jittery glitch effects, delayed digital shimmers, and outlandish vibrato. Watch guest host Lillian Frances breakdown this unique device for sound design and beat making. Video Tutorial For more on Max for Live Packs check out our All About Max for Live Packs Playlist. Subscribe for more awesome tutorials! About Lillian Frances Lillian Frances is a sonic collager hailing from Sacramento, CA. Frances attended Beat Lab in 2015 and 2019 and has since taught Ableton courses at The Library of MusicLandria in Sacramento. Her unique alt-pop style has been compared to Lorde, Sylvan Esso, and Billie Eilish. Her 2018 EP, Timeism, was praised by NPR’s Heavy Rotation, Indie Shuffle, and Cap Radio. Check out more …
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ABLETON 11 Devices – Inspired by Nature, Interview with creator Dillon Bastan
Ableton 11 Devices – ‘Inspired by Nature’ Interview with creator Dillon Bastan Ableton 11 has a lot of great new features coming out in 2021. We had the pleasure of speaking with device designer Dillon Bastan about his 6 new devices for Ableton Live 11 – “Inspired By Nature”. You can see Dillon’s demo for each device at the bottom of the page. What is your background, are you a physicist? What got you interested in making sounds based on natural phenomena? I’m not a physicist at all and am coming from a music background/self-taught programming, my academic math level is low. For some of the devices I make I try to get to a game-like/playful approach to sound generation/design. A couple of years ago I began to learn more about coding simulations of natural phenomena, particularly simple particle systems in the case of these devices, so it was …
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Beat Lab Guide – Performing with Your Computer Keyboard
This class was developed for Moorpark College and Calarts during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow students to create Live Performances using only their computer keyboard. Special thanks go to Nathan Bowen(Moorpark College), Jordan Hochenbaum(Calarts), and Javad Butha(Ableton) for making this happen. Ableton Keyboard Layout Your computer Keyboard can be used as a MIDI controller in Ableton. First, turn on the Computer MIDI Keyboard. Up to Live 9, it’s on by default. If it’s not, you can turn it on with a click. From Live 10, it’s now off by default. To turn it on, either click on the icon or press the M key. The A, S, D, F…. row will play the white keys. A is C, S is D, D is E, F is F, and so on. The W, E, R, T…. row will play the black keys. W is C#, E is …
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Ableton PUSH – Go Beyond with Max for Live (Free Download)
Top 12 Max for Live Devices for Ableton PUSH Ableton PUSH 2 is the most comprehensive controller for Ableton Live. So much so, it feels like an instrument in its own right. With all that the PUSH has to offer, you can go above and beyond with the help of Max for Live. So if you own Ableton Suite 10. Check out these awesome free devices. Expression Control This device is Built-in the Core Library and is often overlooked. It gives us access to the most common MIDI Expression control. Most notable for us PUSH users is the Aftertouch (Pressure Sensitivity). This can give us the ability to map the Aftertouch to anything we want. Some common mapping would be to the Filter Cutoff, Fine Tune (Pitch), and Reverb amount. Use the Ableton search bar to find this device under the Max for Live Catagory. Aftertouch Vibrato …
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Why You Should Start Using Ableton Now!
Why You Should Start Using Ableton Now! Workflow Heaven The most important aspect of a DAW is its ease of use. The faster and more efficiently a producer can work in their DAW, the better. With its intuitive layout, Ableton offers a streamlined and sleek work experience that keeps producers of all backgrounds and levels in movement. Even beginners can get up and running making music in an extremely short amount of time. Arrangement View and Session View Ableton Live’s interface consists of two main views, Arrangement and Session. Arrangement acts as a traditional view for recording, programming, and editing, while Session view brings a new, clip-oriented take on production. The addition of Session view gives users a drawing board to test out new song ideas, whether that be a new melody, drum pattern, or vocal take. Some producers use Session view to produce entire songs! Get …
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Get Hands On! – 5 Tips for Ableton Push
Get Hands On! – 5 Tips for Ableton Push Push has been out for several years now, but it remains a powerhouse for many producers and performers of all backgrounds. The main reason Push has become such a crowd favorite is its versatility. At Beat Lab, we have grown extremely fond of Push ourselves! So much so that we created our own Push course. In this article, we’ll share several of our favorite tips to help ramp up your Push use and increase your production potential! Easily Assign Choke Groups for Drums Push makes creating drum racks a breeze. One instrumental aspect of creating a drum rack with hits that work together and don’t clash is assigning choke groups to drum hits. For those unfamiliar with choke groups, they are used to keep two drum hits from playing at the same time, to keep a groove from sounding …
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MIDI Tricks – Scaled Clips (Free Ableton Template)
MIDI Tricks – Scaled Clips (Free Ableton Template) The Fold button in Live’s MIDI editor can be used as a reference guide to show notes from a scale. This can help us come up with strong melodies, basslines, chords, and arpeggiators with minimal music theory knowledge. It’s simply a quick technique to make sure you’re in scale. Which notes should I play? First create a MIDI clip. Then draw all the notes of the scale you want to play in. All of them should be placed on the same time in the grid. In the image below I drew the notes of C Minor. If you are not sure which notes fit in each scale check out this cool CHEAT SHEET. Next, select all the notes (CMD/CNTRL+A), duplicate them (CMD/CNTRL+D) and then bring them an octave higher (Shift+Up arrow). Do the same for an octave below so you’ll end up with three …
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