Ableton Shaper's Overlooked Live 12 Update

Hey friends! In this video I go through one of the new but seemingly overlooked features of Ableton Live 12: the Manual mode in Shaper!
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Hey, my name's Matt, AKA Martiln, and I'm an electronic music producer, educator and Ableton Certified Trainer from Australia. I love making music and crazy sounds, and I love helping other people learn how to do both of those things too! I also am the creator of a crazy sci-fantasy world and musical storytelling universe called REALMS. If you like what I do, you can support me in all the usual ways or by shouting me a coffee over on my Buy Me A Coffee page.
Much love! 🥰
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⏰ Timestamps:
0:00 - Shaper Overview
1:59 - Shaper 1-Shot Mode
2:45 - Shaper Manual Mode Overview
3:44 - Exponential Filter
5:38 - One-Knob Multi-Effect
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Website: www.matttinklermusic.com
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[@toddwmac]

Thanks Martlin! Loving diving into some of these techniques as I learn Live. Appreciate the style and quality of your content. Thanks you.

[@matttinklermusic]

Thank you! I'm so glad the videos are helping you with your learning. 😁

[@remyvegamedia]

I'm just coming up on 2 years with Ableton, having used Intro up until January... I'm constantly blown away (and borderline overwhelmed hahaaa) by what's possible with macros, racks, and modulation with this DAW 😳

[@matttinklermusic]

Totally! The possibilities are really awesome. 😁

[@FactumImFactio]

Actually, this manual mode is very similar to something that can be done using the remap modulator in the Kilohearts ecosystem, but this would work well in Live's ecosystem. Very cool! Thanks for going through this!

[@matttinklermusic]

Yeah! It's such an awesome feature. :D Thanks for watching. :)

[@fumarolas]

Exactly, Vital has a Mod Remap as well. Very similar concept.

[@f33fifofum]

This is a fantastic video, thanks so much for this. Encouraged to dive into Shaper tomorrow

[@matttinklermusic]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching and I'm glad it inspired you. ☺️

[@gimmenames9039]

Cool! Will play with this tonight :D

[@podgedotmp3]

Truly awesome video. Keep doing what you're doing!!

[@matttinklermusic]

Thank you!! :D

[@coreymumper2208]

Not swaying me from Shaperbox quite yet, but I often find myself using the basics and getting more granular control. Great video mate!

[@matttinklermusic]

Shaperbox is a different beast! Both are very powerful in their own right. 😁

[@DJ_MARIANO]

This is amazing, and a great video!

[@matttinklermusic]

Thank you! Really glad you like it! 😁

[@StephaneGman]

Awesome, ty!

[@matttinklermusic]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching. :)

[@marleenvos4126]

cool lesson, thank you!

[@matttinklermusic]

Thanks for watching! 😁

[@bcornels]

Freakin sweet thanks for pointing this out

[@matttinklermusic]

You're welcome!! Thanks for watching. :)

[@Grant82gc]

This manual mode reminds me of some of the modulators within phaseplant, seems fantastic! Probably the first video that's made me want to install live 12 immediately (I purchased it, I'm just waiting a few more months before installing).

[@matttinklermusic]

I honestly don't know why this wasn't a more publicised feature!!

[@DJ_MARIANO]

Ableton 12 way more stable than 11

[@redgit9905]

Cool shit brah

[@djcontour]

Can this tool be used to side chain to a source. That way when the source plays, the envelope triggers rather than running constantly in the background. Can the trigger button be mapped by any chance? I want to side chain 808s for hip hop and trap, so I’m afraid the fixed patterns won’t work for that

[@matttinklermusic]

It could, but you'd be better off using a different tool. Shaper MIDI does basically the same thing as Shaper but gets triggered on MIDI input, so you could put that on your kick track for instance and map it to control a utility on your 808. Or you could look into other Max 4 Live tools like Duck Buddy, Chain Shaper or Ducker. :)

[@djcontour]

@@matttinklermusic perfect. That’s what I was wondering! Thanks for the info!

[@user-oe8ve4ub1s]

Whats the point of it if you can literally automate everything youd need right on the lanes, including any macros and draw it however you want?

[@tendrel_sound]

So you don’t need automation lanes. Same reason why you’d use an LFO instead of automation lanes.

[@matttinklermusic]

I probably wouldn't use it when producing, because as you say automation lanes can be a lot more flexible for this, but for making complex racks this opens up so many opportunities!

[@kaislate]

Pretty neat. I wish there was a way of importing your own waveshapes or a way of generating some unique ones inside of the device. It would be interesting to start stacking shaper devices that modulate the one after it. That would be one way of creating unique waveshapes.

[@matttinklermusic]

Definitely agree! I'm sure it'd be possible with some tweaks to the device in Max, but I find drawing in shapes to not be too bad. You could always save a rack with a few shapes that you've designed to save some 'preset shapes'. :)

[@F4xP4s]

Why would anyone use mod over remote function?

[@BartWronsk]

When you want to run a shaper or LFO on top of existing lane automation. Or when manually tweaking an effect without going back-and-forth between the controller and the effect. A killer feature, I've been waiting for it for years - most other systems work like this.

[@matttinklermusic]

Exactly what @BartWronsk said! I find mod really useful for lots of applications, the particular application in the video just worked better with remote. :)

[@F4xP4s]

@@BartWronsk Oh, that is handy! In the past I would have automated the depth and offset parameters.

[@davidben-porat6693]

I don't quite understand the difference between Mod and Remote

[@matttinklermusic]

Remote completely overtakes the parameter, meaning that you can't manually move it or even automate it. Mod allows you to still move the parameter manually and also automate it, even map it to macros! Both have their uses, but mod is generally more useful, although it's only been introduced with Live 12. :)

[@Time4CakeAndSodomy]

Just like that transit plugin that was all hyped up a few months ago.

[@matttinklermusic]

Yep! But IMO much more flexible (especially if you mod the device to make the min and max values automatable).