Ableton Live Quick Tip: The Basics of Parameter Automation

Written by on August 9, 2010 - 8 Comments
Categories: Ableton Live Tutorials and Tips

Ableton Live is a simple-looking tool on its face, presenting only the essential functions in an explicit way.  However, if you dig a little deeper you’ll find all sorts of clever functionality that can make your music production life a whole lot easier.

While these things might not seem that special to people who are used to more traditional DAWs where there are lots of functions spread across numerous floating toolbars, those of us who are addicted to Live’s minimalist interface still need the ability to carry out more advanced editing features when it comes time to put the final polish on a track.

In this Ableton tutorial video, I cover some basic concepts related to recording and editing automation curves in Live.  Some of these functions will be obvious to the majority of users, but I suspect at least one or two of them might will be new to many of you, especially the newcomers to Live.

At the very least, this video will serve as a no fluff crash course on automation in Live for you veterans who might be set in your ways and looking to learn some new tricks:

Automation in Ableton Live:

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8 Responses to “Ableton Live Quick Tip: The Basics of Parameter Automation”

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  1. thesimplicity
    August 10, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    I never knew about the shift-drag to delete points. Thanks! That’s going to save me a lot of time cleaning up automation.

    Reply
  2. Ed McLean
    August 14, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    Another set of handy tips, thanks Nick!

    Reply
  3. Pete Horam
    August 14, 2010 at 6:05 pm

    I forgot about the shift drag. Good shortcut info too. Any chance you could do a detailed warping one? I could warp great in previous live versions but i’ve never really got it down in Live 8.

    Cheers,
    Pete

    Reply
  4. Edwin James Lynch
    September 21, 2010 at 8:50 am

    Great tips, Nick! I’ve seen parabolic curves on some tute stills – can Live do ramp in / outs with parabolic curves instead of lines?

    Reply
    • Nick
      March 16, 2011 at 12:38 am

      You can do fade-ins and fade-outs in the latest version with a little bit of control over curve shape, but nothing close to what I’d like to see!

      Reply
  5. horsie
    March 16, 2011 at 12:23 am

    thanks a lot mate, appreciate it !

    Reply

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