Ableton Live 12 for Composers - MIDI Transformation Tools Deep Dive | Side Brain

Programming JD Beck Style Drums with Ableton Live 12 New Rhythm Generative Tool: • Programming JD Beck St...
Chord Pallet: mgfaudio.gumroad.com/l/chord_...
Black MIDI: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_M....
Chiptune OSC: sidebrain.net/chiptune-osc-fo...
Genre Specific Online Workshops: sidebrain.net/vault
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More Ableton Racks, Presets, Template, and Cheat Sheets: sidebrain.net
* Check out the Freebies section!
Preset Packs: sidebrain.net/preset-packs/
Sample Packs: sidebrain.net/sample-packs/
Ableton Certified Trainer
@sidebrain on socials
00:00 - Intro
0:13 - Note Slicing & Fit to Time Range
1:30 - Arpeggiate
4:51 - Connect
6:37 - Quantize
7:37 - Ornament
8:51 - Recombine
10:06 - Span
10:37 - Strum
11:20 - Time Warp
13:34 - Velocity Shaper
14:47 - Chord Pallet
15:45 - Outro

[@ACABSTUDIOS]

Can't wait for Ableton 13 where my computer will keep generating predictive music after I'm dead

[@Rainer01]

These Guys From Ableton are working crazy hard 13 will come out next year i think

[@evanseesred]

Dude, Ableton needed to hire you for the Live 12 announcement. Understanding this makes me realize what a seismic shift this update is (and what a strategic advantage it will be for ableton media composers)

[@luigipietro20]

Yeah man I agree 100%, I’ve actually been using the beta for a while now but hadn’t noticed how good these new midi features are until I watched this video. Total game changer for me

[@SideBrain]

Thanks guys!!

[@evanseesred]

@@SideBrain One additional question for you: do you know if you can automate the master scale in the session? Would be an incredible scoring tool to be able to simultaneously change across all instruments.

[@MrReeTart]

​@@evanseesredEach clip has its own scale awareness. The 'master' scale indicator just sets a default scale for all new clips.

[@evanseesred]

@@MrReeTart so changing the scale in real time across a project isn’t possible huh? That’s a bummer.

[@itscalledalancehello4709]

I love how the notes will visually change in real time. Good demonstration and the videos only just started.

[@SideBrain]

Thank you! And yes me too!

[@22Ruffet]

I love how you demonstrated these new features, your videos are always sonically and melodically pleasing implementations of plugins and DAWs, so inspiring!

[@SideBrain]

Thank you so much! That’s great to hear

[@LaPlant_Mastering]

I agree, this is the biggest Live update in years. Fantastic stuff. And fantastic videos, I must say. Keep 'em coming!

[@SideBrain]

Thank you!

[@audiodevout]

your face when you find a good midi selection is really how it this video feels! super cool content got me really excited for whats coming

[@SideBrain]

Haha yes!! Love to hear it

[@aeko]

So insane. Thanks for the detailed walkthrough!

[@avantagonist]

thanks for going through these! I've been holding off upgrading since Live 9, these are the first new features that have made me want to upgrade. Hope even more composition tools like these are added in 12.

[@SideBrain]

Yes these are one of my favorite new features and I’m sure we’ll see a lot more Max for Live MIDI tools!

[@BIG_PASTA]

Excellent video thank you! Just got very into hybrid orchestral composition for film recently, and its great to see you demo these tools in a way that translates to that kinda thing! My brain was already stirring up ideas and your examples just made me even more excited to try em out :)

[@SideBrain]

That’s great to hear! Yeah these new tools are so inspiring!

[@BIG_PASTA]

@@SideBrain would love another video on the topic (or something related) if you come up with any more cool ways to use these features. Really enjoy the stuff you tend to make! :)

[@ultralife73]

This is stunning. You still need to be able to lay down a decent chord but the little varieties this creates are really subtle and usable!

[@SideBrain]

Absolutely agree! Although I guess even the chords can be created with the new Stacks Generative Tool

[@steelesaldutti]

Ableton 12 now also has chord generation too

[@DaveTherrien]

this is the best video I've seen on these new Live 12 tools !

[@SideBrain]

That’s so nice to hear thank you!

[@r1cht3a]

1000% mind blown by this update. To me this makes Live a whole new tool. The one I've been hoping for. So glad I discovered your channel a while back too. You're my top Ableton KZbinr for sure now! Thank you for your work :)

[@SideBrain]

Thank you so much! That’s awesome to hear

[@rockstarjoe]

I'm new to your channel... this was hugely useful and informative! I love these MIDI transform functions, they can be really inspiring creative tools.

[@SideBrain]

Thank you and yes I completely agree

[@etiennestehelin3171]

This is fantastic man thanks for making this video. I’m new to Ableton 12 and there’s a lot of stuff to “find”. Very helpful!

[@SideBrain]

That’s great to hear and you’re welcome

[@sned_music]

Damn dude, thankyou, best breakdown of actual new compositional MIDI features I've seen. The onament and strum features alone are amazing, no more manually staggering notes 😆

[@SideBrain]

Thank you! And I agree!

[@Crazy-Society]

Fantastic explanation! The best I have seen! Thanks so much!

[@SideBrain]

Thank you so much! That’s so nice to hear

[@ChuckSilva]

This is a fantastic and inspiring tutorial my dude! THANKS!!!!

[@SideBrain]

Thank you! That’s great to hear

[@alansalomon]

Awesome video. tnx for showing these tools in action.

[@SideBrain]

Glad you like them!

[@paulchambers2403]

Total game changer for sure❤

[@SideBrain]

Agree

[@lemonberries]

Fantastic demo

[@SideBrain]

Thank you!

[@bcornels]

Oh man I’ve been really curious about the midi transformation max for live tools so thanks for pointing that one out. There’s a Euclidean paid device I bought in the past that’s already integrated as a generation tool so that’s cool.

[@SideBrain]

yeah I'm excited to see all the Max for Live stuff people will make

[@sqyttles]

Thanks for the vid! I think that there are many workflows involving these transformers and generators that will be discovered/invented over the next few months. I like using the Random Once mode in the Arpeggiator transformer to generate melodies from chords, for example. It would be amazing to have a transformer/generator that would snap notes to a chord track, for example.

[@SideBrain]

Absolutely agree can’t wait to see what everyone is going to come up with

[@happniin5287]

I watched this from my laptop next to my bed while I was lying down and I swear from a sideway angle the grid and midi notes became wavy lol

[@SideBrain]

They are. My screen is liquid

[@morizanova]

This is maybe the best Ableton 12 Piano Roll use case video . Would like to see another explorations from you . Yeah its will not transform ableton into another DAW challenger , but still deep dive what we've already have seem more productive for most of us ( ableton users)

[@SideBrain]

Thank you so much! More is coming

[@bjamminsincebirth3494]

This is insane. 🔥

[@SideBrain]

I agree!

[@shualiko]

Wow, Thanks for this video. Subscribed to your channel.

[@SideBrain]

Thank you!

[@metacortexvortex2131]

Wow I was just getting used to live 11 and now they gone and done this! Damn!!!

[@SideBrain]

I know. Honestly me too!

[@ManCalledMif]

1:31 arpeggiating scale degrees are awesome!

[@SideBrain]

I agree

[@lemonhscott7667]

Great vid!

[@SideBrain]

Thank you!

[@pongtrometer]

Wow, I would love to assign midi velocity to the rate grid, this new update is like the Web 2.0 of music production. GR8 overview

[@SideBrain]

I agree! this is huge

[@BILLYPATRON]

Do you have a live streams where you answer questions about live? The thing I miss most about Cubase is the weekly streams by Greg Ondo where he answered literally any question I ever asked. I haven’t found someone who does this for ableton yet but they should definitely hire you for this.

[@dumafuji]

Fantastic video

[@SideBrain]

Thank you!

[@MikeRolls]

Wow great stuff - just found your channel. Subscribed! Just wondering about something not related to this video exactly, but you might be the person to ask - is it possible to randomise the start-time and length of notes? I'd quite like to be able to specify this for each note in the same way you can set the randomised velocity range for each note, but don't think it's possible or ever likely to exist..

[@SideBrain]

First, thank you for the sub! For your questions, in Ableton Live 12 there is a new humanize control which does just that. But there is a trick with the groove engine you can use in previous versions of live. Check out my video "Programming Kaytranada Style Drums in Ableton Live" I show that trick there.

[@MikeRolls]

Cheers! Yes I'm awaiting Ableton 12, so the humanize feature looks very interesting. I'll check out that vide. Many thanks :)@@SideBrain

[@jasonmaggard3829]

Awesome vid

[@SideBrain]

Thank you!

[@AsherBKNY]

‏תודה רבה

[@SideBrain]

בבקשה

[@Crazy-Society]

Btw: I am looking for a Device which lets me play only the Chord notes from a Progression. So when I put together a cool 9/11/13th chord vamp which doesn't belong to a particular scale i want to jam around for finding a melody to only these chord notes in the same order the chords turn up. Thanks and all the best!

[@maximesteiner]

Hi, thanks for the video! Quick question: do you beta-test live 12 for push? if yes, are these midi transformation tools going to be added to the push standalone? thank you!

[@SideBrain]

I am. I don’t think they are available yet but hopefully soon

[@Pheekofc]

I just got my beta copy and this tutorial is super appreciated. I'll ask you because I'm struggling to find that info but in the session view, I don't see the scroll left-right under the clip section - it's gone! I can't find how to navigate my session view anymore. Keep those composition tutorial coming!

[@SideBrain]

Thank you! And I'm not completely sure which section you are talking about. Maybe it's the overview section? You can show hide the overview section with CMD+OPTION+O

[@Pheekofc]

@@SideBrain add 20 channels. How do you move left and right? Not in arrangement section.

[@SideBrain]

@@Pheekofc Ok I think I see what you are saying. I use a magic mouse so I'm scrolling left and right on it but you can click and scroll on the bottom of the channels where now there is a new track color highlight. It's kind of hidden on top of it.

[@MrOuija-rr8kq]

What I like about Ableton 12 is I’m getting a TB 303 vibes from it. By that I mean , there are opportunities to have many happy accidents just from messing around with it.

[@SideBrain]

I agree it’s has a lot more sequencer like features now

[@FXWS]

Is there finally an internal MIDI channel routing? If not, what's the point of the upgrade? Even the inexpensive Reaper can do that!

[@andreasgoteson5717]

Schönberg would have loved these tools 😊

[@SideBrain]

Haha for sure

[@Bronwyn031]

😳I had no idea this feature was in Live 12 natively!

[@SideBrain]

It's new!

[@Bronwyn031]

@@SideBrain I'm still using 12 like it was 11 sadly. I haven't explored all of the new features in it.

[@sternenherz]

Really good, still far away from what Cubase offers for Orchestral Scoring Composing. Mr. Hans Zimmer (thumbnail) for sure will stay a Cubase user :D

[@Bass_Nomad.]

music is interesting, i used to struggle with coming up with melodies, until i found out that music is a very similar to math. the biggest cheat for me is that ableton has the scale feature on the piano roll, it actually made me switch daws because my old favourite daw (reason) didn't have that. It saves me so much time. There are some things i miss in ableton though, reason lets you do pitch editing on audio like melodyne. ableton doesnt have it which is a shame. all that said, i hardly ever use the players/ arpeggiators / generators. The future is going to be hard for musicians, these tools are ok. but compared to what is possible now its not that impressive. for instance, on aiva you can generate a song and get the generated midi. basically all you have to do is put on some instruments (fortunately the music aiva generates is not very good :)).

[@airfixx_8952]

Wow... That's a lot to take in over 16mins. LOL One thing I was hoping they'd finally add was a midi version of the beat repeat tool..... In amongst all these new midi menus is there anything that would do that job? ..........Alternatively does anyone know of a M4L device for that purpose?

[@Randuski]

hey. just found your vids. and um. i really want your parallel mirrors verb preset. it looks like its a custom ir. any chance you'll let me have it? hahaha its very nice

[@SideBrain]

Thank you! It is very nice!! Soon I'll make a whole video about the Hybrid Reverb and I'll include a free download of the preset but honestly you can copy the settings in the algorithmic section. You can ignore the convolution custom IR it doesn't do much. More acts as a filter if anything.

[@chillcomputerguy]

Excellent material very instructive. I like when you turn the arpeggios up to 128. I enjoyed a good laugh.

[@SideBrain]

Haha yeah. I think you can even do faster with the smaller grid keyboard shortcut!

[@trojanpro]

didn't orion by synapse audio also have a midi arp generator thing? that was 20 years ago!

[@SideBrain]

Yes the arp has been around forever, It's not to see it as a MIDI transformation tool but you can still print it to MIDI with older Ableton versions. I think the biggest thing here is the other tools like connect.

[@Phadddy]

Are all these functions accessible on the Push (2)? I was hoping for Ableton 12 to have most features also available on Push like Maschine, now they have a standalone version. I don't like working with a mouse at all. These generative tools don't sound musical to me, Ableton is going in the wrong direction for me. Was hoping for more Live tools like DJ effects (like Shaperbox), pitch correction and harmonizing tools. For this update the price should be under $100.

[@SideBrain]

I don't think it is currently supported on the PUSH. And I hear you about the other features

[@joshua5887]

Can you explain how to instal Chord Pallet?

[@SideBrain]

Under your User Library create a folder called MIDI Tools and place it there

[@MarquisVonLion]

Out of subject comment : why can't the "Clip view toggle" have a short cut or at least be mapped ? Thanks

[@SideBrain]

The new keyboard shortcut for clip view is CMD+ALT+3

[@theDUCER.]

Alright I wasn't that interested in 12, but now.... (thanks for the video!)

[@SideBrain]

Same

[@podcastharry]

So awesome but also so conflicting. With AI able to bust out music on demand and instantly, tools like this feel like they’re making beat making like painting by numbers - like where is the human input? Don’t get me wrong I love this stuff but what’s the role of the composer in the future? Maybe people were saying this in the 90s about digital 😂

[@SideBrain]

That’s a valid question. And yes it does feel like another advanced in music making technology. We already have AI that create full composition with a prompt. But here at least we can set up a system of rules for the computer to work in.

[@Newemka]

What @HansZimmer is doing on the thumbnail of this video?

[@SideBrain]

A representation of a famous composer I like modern stuff so I went with him over Beethoven

[@DenisPankov]

Don't forget to balance the volume of the video, some parts really stick out ;) 14:44

[@SideBrain]

Will do thanks

[@b.robertson9042]

I'm a beta tester for Live 12. It's frustrating. They tried to fix a lot of things that weren't broken.

[@LesterBrunt]

Man, this updated is godlike. You know how many hours I spend on doing all this stuff by hand?

[@SideBrain]

I’m sure A LOT

[@alexandersorbas1881]

So ableton is trying to get a shot at the fl studio piano roll and features...not a bad approach from a marketing perspective

[@martinlemay7037]

No, they just integrate great max4live tool that are around since +10 years directly into the new UI of Live 12. Great idea, more accessible, less low basic programming for musicians.

[@OnToffee]

o where is that parallel mirrors reverb?

[@SideBrain]

It’s from my free Hybrid Reverb Preset pack on my website

[@OnToffee]

@@SideBrain Perfect. Also how did you get the chord palette for the midi transformation?

[@pixelrancher]

Black MIDI is intense.

[@SideBrain]

Super

[@pixelrancher]

@@SideBrain I was - and am - a fan of Zappa and did own the "in New York" LP, and others. Saw him on that tour with Terry Bozzio on drums when they did Black Page. Toronto '81, I believe.

[@JayVucci]

Thank you. I’m so glad that you can change this interface. I use mine dark with different colours for the headers. Looking at the normal interface on your screen, it looks so ugly. I think that’s the reason why I disliked the program for 10 years! Glad I’m over that.

[@gerhardwasowski]

Hans Zimmer uses Cubase LOL

[@Avaruuskettu]

Is there a way to get this now? Or is this just a hype train?

[@SideBrain]

Yes Live 12 is in public beta right now. You do need to sign up to the beta program which is free

[@Avaruuskettu]

@@SideBrain Awesome, thank you!

[@bumsibar6163]

"endless inversions" for every chord, ok case closed.

[@creatorsremose]

I kind of respect the fact that you're not even trying to work with your Israeli accent. It's as if you're almost putting a little extra effort to sound more Israeli than you naturally do. :) Kudos man. Truly.

[@SideBrain]

Thank you. I moved to Los Angeles 16 years ago. I gave up on my accent a long time ago. Trust me you don’t want to hear me trying to take an American accent :)

[@SpritzMcSoda]

IMHO it's a stretch to call this type of thing a composition tool, more like a randomizer, which IME isn't how you improve your compositions. Modern producers and song-writers seem to think the only way to achieve something good is by throwing as many random things at the wall as possible and seeing what sticks. It's not, and it's an inefficient way to work. It also keeps you from learning and improving on actual compositional techniques. Theory isn't as hard as everyone makes it out to be, and all these modern crutches trying to replace actual acuity are making producers dumber. Just IMHO.

[@mookiiieeee]

Ok boomer

[@Azfurita]

There is No way Zimmer its gonna use this crap

[@HORNGEN4]

Ableton is still trash for composers compared to Cubase. Just basic ass MIDI editing capability is missing. Cannot edit multiple clips and select playback points. What's the point of adding the bells and whistles if the basics aren't even there?

[@jackc8120]

I think you can edit multiple notes all at once i know for sure you can select playback points

[@HORNGEN4]

@@jackc8120 sure you can edit them, but just try to play back from any given point in the clip. It doesn't work.

[@jackc8120]

​@@HORNGEN4 oh yes you are right even shift-enter doesn't work and it is sooo annoying. I agree with you 100% it's crazy that ableton can't fix that simple thing.

[@MULTIMAN-MUSIC]

Cubase is nice I used it for over a decade, but to say Ableton is trash for composers is a bit harsh, the interface alone is so much better laid out and clean… writing ideas is faster than any DAW and if you add Max to the equation then is years ahead… only Bitwig competes in that area.

[@HORNGEN4]

@@MULTIMAN-MUSIC I hear you. I use Ableton a ton as well and love a lot of things about it. If you're just beat and sound design driven, it's all you need...BUT if you're doing any kind of intensive orchestration and arranging between channels, Ableton REALLY sucks. As I mentioned, arranging MIDI between clips is tedious at best, and basic audio editing is an absolute chore (no simultaneous horizontal fading, limited selection tools, clip gain requires 3 clicks, etc). Ableton developers still think everyone who uses it is into dance music. That's just not it. It could be sooooo much better if they just considered the absolute basics missing and stopped focusing on all these FX and bells/whistles.

[@naorswissa6949]

Gadgets are for mediocre, ableton try to impress kids with stupid features

[@SideBrain]

I love stupid features