Endless Creative Techniques With Ableton's Shaper

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Have you used Ableton's shaper device before? This Max for Live device is a great replacement for Xfer Records LFO Tool, and it's free! Plus, there is so much creative potential unique to this device.
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0:00 Intro
0:29 What is Shaper?
3:39 'Sidechain' ducking effect
7:57 Creative Shaper Tips
9:11 Making Rhythms
10:45 Layering
13:45 Modulating with Shaper
18:48 Making Drum Fills
25:56 Final Track Jam
26:54 Outro

[@silent.tom67]

I thought about buying Shaperbox. Now you teached me that i already have everything. Thanks.

[@henry7831]

Endless!!!!! Endless!!!! You can draw so many shapes,so many possibilities.

[@jbaab3603]

great stuff man! thanks for sharing that out!

[@toddwmac]

Thanks for a great vid, it was what I was looking for and more. I'm just moving from Studio One to Live and I learned a ton from this. Thanks!

[@nacimbakhai5543]

5***** video, keep on posting please 😉👍

[@antoineguilbeault8025]

really cool video thank you !

[@holydiver4728]

Very usefull, taking notes here !

[@nobigdealz7237]

Amazing video love the track nice work

[@MrSillyjabjab72]

This video is so inspiring thank you!

[@pheromusic]

Sgaper. Love it! What a great video. Thank you so much. Very helpful!

[@drummouth]

This video is sooooo useful. Thank you

[@graceintheplace13]

AMAZING CONTENT! Thank you!!!!

[@forsale313]

Good stuff!

[@StuartwasDrinkell]

Great breakdown thanks!

[@PaulBrownclk-me]

Ableton never fails to amaze me👍

[@ahmedtaktak581]

Super useful, thanks man!

[@ProgressiveBreath]

Luca, I love your videos. The way you explain stuff and the examples you use are very easy to follow. Could you do a video on creative use of white noise? Like how to properly use it to build tension ect

[@EDMProd]

Thanks so much! Really appreciate the kind words, Yep I'll add it to the list!

[@rayderrich]

I am still so new to Ableton Live that I did not find out about the Shaper yet, but after watching this video I will definitely add it to my routine. Thanks!

[@bobrobertsNotUrBob]

ableton is so complex and always learning something new about, so tx...nicely done. I didnt know you could use lfo's on a track to contorl another track

[@the_cursor]

Great video. I learned a lot.

[@antichikaplastica]

this is so amazing and useful thank you!!!

[@LunaCypher334]

you successfully blew my mind with shaper

[@soran8sora]

plenty bunch of wise knowledge! thank you!

[@Gome.o]

Shape city population… THIS guy

[@osea-later5692]

love it

[@Bronwyn031]

I just learned how to duck using a gate versus using a compressor; and now you come along and show me a third way to duck by basically automating volume gain using "Shaper's" LFO. 👍🏾

[@williampennell8567]

And I meant no respect to the dude who posted this video, completely the same concept I am talking about, I just would hope that people reading this don't get caught up on thinking that all it is is a means to dynamically control an LFO for instance you could use the LFO tool but put it on the random wave turn up the Jitter and all that, and then assign each mapping to the adsr. Okay one final last one I want to tell you guys about, so I got the audio from one of those videos of dudes playing drums on buckets in the street. Put it in a simpler and sliced it up by the transit and monophonically so basically each key of the keyboard correlated to a different Timbre hit. As an effect I put the vocoder around there and mess with knobs in such a way that when one knob is all the way to the right, I think it's the fourment knob? Not completely sure, when it's all the way to the right it sounds high-pitched and it almost sounds like hi-hats, but when it's all the way to the left it sounds like big sub-base bombs dropping so I got an elephant tool and a sine wave moving very slowly, every two beats, so that every two beats were high hats and then it slowly modulated into these big sub-bass hits playing the same syncopated rhythm

[@Morteza_Jahan]

That was awesome. I remember Sam from anjuna forum. Stay safe!

[@vivektyagi6848]

Awesome

[@LoveIsWhoWeAre]

Thnx!!

[@4ktraveltours]

great content

[@EDMProd]

Appreciate that!

[@TheSonicDeviant]

Amazing video! Can you do a tutorial on Neurofunk bass design please!? 🙏🏽

[@gonzalodelossantos1161]

Amazing video, love your all your content. Could you briefly explain how you do the Operator Arp Patch? Would love to understand how that sound is made :)

[@pk3776]

Awesome tips 👍🙏💯❤️🖖

[@EDMProd]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed em

[@luamclarindo]

Really well explained! Thanks for the content! If you were playing live would you stay in the arrangement view?

[@nikatsound6509]

Nice video bro

[@UnderTaker-pz1kx]

Did you know if you double click a point it turns in to circle and acts like sustain ? It can be very confusing if you don't know and double click it by mistake. Strangely it is not mentioned in user manual.

[@PaPawGOT]

I love that lead, what synth was used? Great Tutorial!!

[@sincere9142]

Great video. To your point around 4:00 about figuring out your maximum and minimum values first, if you want to be very particular about the range of the parameter - I find myself mapping the knob I want to control with the LFO to a macro in it's own group. That way you can choose exactly what your minimum and maximum values are and map to that knob instead.

[@EDMProd]

Yep! Another great way of doing it

[@markuskopter]

There are some good ideas for modulations in here. Though, I'm not sure if I like your approach of putting all Shapers on one single track. I'd like to have my effects more locally on the tracks they are actually modulating, so I'd put them right next to what is the target. I use that budget LFO-Tool you showed as well, but for me it's more practical to group Shaper and Utility in an Effect Rack. My preset also has macros defined for Depth and Smooth. I then use that Preset on every Track that needs LFO-based sidechain-like modulation.

[@EDMProd]

For sure! Always a personal preference thing. Putting them on 1 track just makes it much easier if the shapers are targeting multiple tracks at once, (rather than having to remember which track they're on), but if they're targeting just one parameter - I totally agree, much easier on the track or in an effect rack. Again, if you want each element to be pumping slightly differently, definitely have a new one on each track. But if you want everything to be pumping together with the exact same shape, having them all connected and controlling from an individual track is cool way of working. It's all about working efficiently with the desired outcome in mind! Thanks for the comment :)

[@sean_wave]

gamechanger

[@chriscopeman8820]

I want an envelope. A modulation shape that’s triggered with a midi note on event. Doesn’t Ableton have such an effect?

[@phillipthepug7032]

Anyone know where I can get that first pad called "Pacific Horizon"? Nice vid btw!

[@3ool0ne]

I'm unable to map the shaper to a non-Ableton native plugin like Monark (Reaktor plugin from NI) or any other non-native plugin. Any ideas on how to make this work?

[@yosomusicdude3381]

You might be able to do it with Monark if you press the upside down triangle you can find on top of every effect added onto a track, after the activate button. That will unfold all the plugin parameters in Live, which will allow you to map to shaper and do other things like automation

[@nth7485]

While the shaper tool is powerful and fun, it's lacking one important feature - A SIDECHAIN INPUT! Ideally you would want to be able to trigger the shaper based on e.g. a kick drum and not just a fixed interval.

[@EDMProd]

Yes! That would be an amazing feature, I'm all about that

[@eeddddddddd]

How about the envelope follower? Seems that can be used like a side chain to look at the audio then modulate the modulator!?

[@ELGATO.CHANNEL]

@EDMProd Guys, I find Shaper from max for live very unstable.. Do you guys know a alternative or fix for this?? (context: is very common that the project crashs and can't re-open when I use Shaper on more than 1 channel) Keep it up!

[@EDMProd]

Are you on the latest version of Ableton? It's become way more stable over time with updates.

[@ELGATO.CHANNEL]

@@EDMProd Hmm, the version I use is Live 10.1.6. *Do you guys remember if in any version of Live 10 the 'Shaper' was stable?* (thank you for the video btw guys! keep rocking!)

[@djdazza2796]

Is this also for live 10???

[@konradgasowski3214]

yup

[@nebroskitheraut6705]

I think you have to have the Suite edition

[@williampennell8567]

In my opinion that's not even really what makes these maxtool special. Although that is a cool application. There are some of them that will modify parameters based on volume changes, or velocity and they allows for some really Dynamic kinds of things to happen for instance if you get the envelope follower tool, maybe it's another one but it is based on the total volume coming out of from whatever Source you have it on. I have managed to set up almost completely lifelike drum cymbals using those, the harder and faster you're playing them, the less tight the attack is going to be in the louder they're going to be, using the Brit bitcrusher or saturator, and then the release contains, the sustained can go up and down period couple that with the LFO tool changing the start point eversole minutely by each beat, and you start to get something that sounds very lifelike. And as I alluded to, then you can start adding something like a bitcrusher or a ter that put a utility just to mute it. Or check this one out. Put something light in your drum rack for instance a high hat or something and then getting the facts track, in the first chain put that Echo tool and turn the Reverb on so once you start hitting that hi-hat quickly and with more velocity it starts processing and hard clipping so much that eventually you will just read out on your meter. After that ecotool put your envelope follow, and then after that put a utility and turn it down. And then map your tool to say the mix control in halftime. Tweak your Echo effect ever so perfectly to where it takes a whole lot of building up to create feedback in the speakers, but once that feedback is created then the mix for instance and halftime can start going up. Pack you could leave your hi-hat non muted so it would be sort of A build-up. Honestly the options are Limitless, it almost gets kind of daunting when you start thinking about everything that you could do. I once once watched the video and the guy did a technique similar, within his drum kit he had an envelope follower on the bass drum, so every time the envelope with the bass drum was done then decimort or maybe just a bit Crusher would slowly start turning up and affecting the entire bus, thereby giving the whole beat a gritty feeling except for the kick. Maybe the kick was extracted from? But then every time the kick hit the bit crushing went out and came in clearly and then it started slowly Rising back up again

[@ijamlive8229]

Why dotn I have shaper?

[@EDMProd]

Only included within the Live 10 Suite (and beyond) versions of Ableton. Ableton standard wont have them.

[@dogycannel4294]

Why not use automations, it gives more possibilities as you can change these modulations and add variations easier

[@EDMProd]

Good question! Using automation is just another way of working with different results. Much more time-consuming for the task we are using it for in this video! LFOs and automation can create the same effect, but optimized for different purposes. If you want something repeating throughout the whole track consistently, an LFO is much more efficient. If you want to link multiple parameters together and tweak them all at the same time - this is where a shaper becomes SUPER efficient. You can't do that with automation! However, if you want finer control, perhaps you want to change it throughout the track, and you don't mind taking longer to copy all the automation over each time, automation might be the way to go. Everything has its place, it's about working to the strengths of each technique!

[@JamesLevineAndSons]

you could create clip automations in session view, for example, for a similar result. What I'm really liking about the shaper is that it creates some space and movement in your mix on a local/cycling scale, rather than an arrangement scale. Does that make sense?

[@gbigbo_zjebeezjeboo]

Same reflection I had

[@vout23]

no polyphony

[@tomagee420]

Sgaper