The Art of Sampling with Ableton

Name: The Art of Sampling with Ableton
Rating: 4.4 (10 reviews)

Learn the Art of Sampling in Ableton Live & turn your computer into a Sampler

Created byElevator Program

Last updated 8/2021

English

What you'll learn

The Art of Sampling
Ableton Sampling
Ableton Sampler Instruments
Drum Slicing
Audio Warping in Ableton

Course content

2 sections • 7 lectures • 59m total length

Introduction0:22
Introduction to Audio Warping8:15
Audio Warping (Source: Ableton Website)
Unlike music stored on tape or in a traditional digital audio workstation, the music in Live remains “elastic“ at all times. Live is capable of time-warping samples while streaming them from disk so as to synchronize them to the current Live Set’s tempo. This happens without affecting the pitch, which can be changed independently. Mixing and matching audio from different origins is therefore extremely easy.
Beat Slicing & Drum Sampling14:43
Ableton's audio warping allows for audio files to be used in a flexible way. However there are also a number of ways to extract musical ideas from audio clips and place them into MIDI clips for new creative possibilities.
In this tutorial we discuss Ableton Beat Slicing. By using this technique we can take loops / recordings and reanimate them into new sequences / loops. This is a great way to take control of the audio you are working with. It's also a good way to take old loops and create something totally new.
Sampling Synths & Creating New MIDI Ideas10:00
We continue exploring Ableton's Audio to MIDI capabilities by rendering synthetic material into new something totally new. In this tutorial we will slice synth loops in true MPC fashion, allowing us to isolate notes and reanimate them.
We will also look at converting synth loops into MIDI clips, extracting pitch and note length data from static audio in order to apply them to Ableton synths. This is one of the truly great techniques for reanimating audio into new digital ideas. The creative possibilities are endless and it's a great way to break out of writers block.

Introduction0:14
Ableton Simpler Masterclass5:28
In this tutorial we explore Ableton's Simpler Instrument.
About Ableton Simpler (Source: Sound on Sound)
Using Simpler couldn't be much easier: drag a sample into its Drop zone, set sample playback and looping boundaries as necessary and start playing. By default, C3 plays the sample at its original speed and pitch, but the Transpose and Detune boxes let you offset that by semitones and cents. The filter offers 12dB or 24dB per octave low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and notch modes. You can modulate its cutoff with an ADSR envelope, Simpler's LFO, note velocity and key number. Volume and pitch have their own ADSR envelopes. The LFO has six waveforms, is free running or sync'ed to tempo and can be routed to filter, pitch, pan and volume.
Ableton Sampler Masterclass20:05
About the Ableton Sampler (Source: Ableton)
Sampler is a sampling instrument that brings powerful multisample playback and import, as well as profound sound design capabilities to Ableton Live.
Sampler is Ableton's advanced sampling instrument. It's extremely versatile, combining traditional sampling features with advanced sound design and synthesis. Sampler can handle any kind of multi-gigabyte instrument library you care to name--including GigaStudio, EXS, SoundFont and (non-encrypted) Kontakt.
But the fun really starts when you go in deep and start sound-shaping--Sampler gives you intuitive control over every detail of your sound. Be prepared to create vibrant and complex sounds from even the most basic audio source material.
Sampler Note: On the Sampler instrument, it is possible to set the root note of the Sampler to the pitch of your sample. For example, if a sample is G#m, we set the 'Root' of the Sampler to G#m. This way, the sampler is in tune with the sample itself, so when you hit other notes they should be in tune, relative to the root sample.
If we don't know which octave the sample sits, ie C1, C2, C3 etc, that is ok, we just need to bear that in mind when scaling up and down the octaves, the most important thing is that the 'Root' of the Sampler is set to the pitch of the sample. Otherwise the sample will default trigger at its original pitch at C3. You can however use Ableton's 'Tuner' in audio effects to determine the pitch of the sample and set the root note accordingly.

Requirements

Ableton

Description

The Art of Sampling was created by Berlin based music producer and sound engineer Hybrasil (aka Will Kinsella). This course is dedicated to the craft of sampling audio and creating new ideas from static audio files.

In this course Hybrasil outlines his approach to sampling using Ableton's Sampler Instruments, audio warping and Beat Slicing. Suitable for all versions of Ableton (9/10/11 etc) the techniques outlined in this course will help you take your creativity to the next level.

WHAT YOU LEARN

How to warp audio in Ableton
How to use the Ableton Sampler Instrument
How to use the Ableton Simpler Instrument
Beat Slicing
Synth Slicing
Generating MIDI loops from audio
Crafting new ideas from old loops

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SAMPLING

The art of Sampling has been central to the evolution of House, Techno & Hip Hop music. In the following lectures we explore the creative sampling possibilities within Ableton Live. Breath new life into sample packs, slice and rearrange loops, render audio loops into complex midi clips through Ableton's innovative Sampling Techniques.

Sampler Machines like the Akai MPC 60 and E-Mu SP1200 helped shape modern music, where more contemporary sampling machines such as the Elektron Octatrack and Native Instruments Maschine have taken the craft of sampling into the 21st Century.

Who this course is for:

Beginner to Advanced Music Producers
Sample Based Producers
Electronic Music Producers
Techno Producers
House Music Producers
Tech House Producers
EDM Producers
Hip Hop Artists
Ableton Teachers

The Art of Sampling with Ableton

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Warping Audio & Creative Sampling4 lectures • 33min

Ableton Sampler Instruments3 lectures • 26min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: