Ableton Live Quick Tip – Resampling and Sample-Based Workflow

Written by on August 13, 2010 - 7 Comments
Categories: Ableton Live Tutorials and Tips

Here, I've chopped out a portion of the original audio and created layers on new audio tracks.

Resampling is an incredibly simple yet powerful technique in digital music production.  The idea is straighforward:  Record the output of one or multiple tracks into a new, editable audio file.  It’s not much different than rendering your composition, except here you’re actually going to incorporate the new file into the current song.

I employ this technique often, dropping the resampled audio onto a new track and chopping, mangling, retuning and layering it until it’s barely recognizable.  This simple technique can pay dividends in terms of thickening sounds and giving you unexpected new directions for your composition.

As I say in the video, this technique is the crux of what hip-hop producers have been doing for a long time, so there’s no reason why people working in different genres can’t learn from this approach (If you’re interested, I have a 2 hour long Sampling and Slicing series which goes into sample layering and mangling).

In addition to giving rise to new composition techniques, resampling is a great way to force yourself to commit to your song rather then endlessly tweaking the MIDI notes and arrangement.

When you drop everything to audio, it may become easier to move forward and get the damn thing finished!  The visual clutter of a complex MIDI arrangement can sap a composer’s motivation, while a simple waveform presents the user with a manageable set of information.

Here’s a brief rundown of resampling and its uses in Ableton Live:

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7 Responses to “Ableton Live Quick Tip – Resampling and Sample-Based Workflow”

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  1. Mark T
    August 14, 2010 at 11:56 am

    Hi Nick,

    Hey bro I wanted to stop by and say hi, it’s been a while. Love the new blog, you’ve really came a long way. I gave up on my Ableton website, I just couldn’t keep up with you man. I went back to music and still use Live everyday. Love the quick tips. Keep in touch. Peace…

    Mark T

    Reply
  2. dj shiva
    August 14, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    Grrr. I didn’t even know it was that easy to select a section to cut. I was doing it the hard way by trying to draw a cursor line. Just that teeny little tip made my day. LOL

    Reply
  3. Mark Turnham
    August 18, 2010 at 9:31 pm

    Now I understand what resampling is and how it’s used….Thanks

    Reply
  4. Navar
    May 17, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    Nice one! I’m going to be buying your various sampling packages soon, I need to step up my sampling game. I started making music as a traditional musician, and for a while when I started out making electronic music, I let the “real music” snobs get to me, and scare me away from trying sampling because it isn’t real music. Then I learned more about how producers in virtually every genre of music since the sampler incorporated either samples or resamples, including old school house, 80′s synth funk and boogie, and even disco. The song that really turned me on was Tullulah Moon’s If You Want My Love. Excellent and classic use of resampling to achieve a unique musical effect unachievable by other means.

    I study neuroscience by trade, and in the face of overbearing criticism from music snobs about sampling, I had occasion to sit down and thought about it, that anytime I played a given note on a piano, I was literally sampling every such instance of that note that I’d ever heard, and what I played next was probabilistically determined by my musical listening background and training. My brain is a highly sophisticated sampler, using probably distributions not unlike probability based midi effects. So someone who is skilled at sampling and listening potentially possesses every bit of musical sense as someone who physically makes music, perhaps even more so because there are many musical hacks among traditional musicians, too. Whether I decide to follow an inverted triad over root minor 9th chord with a suspended chord, or whether I sample the same thing from a D-train tune, I still need to have a musical sense to know what goes together in order to say something meaningful about my personal and musical history.

    Really liking your site. Please keep it up!

    Best,
    Navar

    Reply
  5. jevins
    July 23, 2012 at 10:08 pm

    yee thanks for taking the time dude!

    Reply

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