Generative Ambient on Liven XFM

[@SONICWARE]

Thank you so much for always featuring LIVEN XFM! Would you give us permission to post links to your videos on our XFM web pages?

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for the comment: I'd be very happy for you to share my videos with other users through your website or otherwise. I'm a great fan of the Liven devices, so I'm glad to help.

[@SONICWARE]

@@ChalkWalkMusic Thank you for your cooperation! We appreciate it!!

[@inthefade]

Serious Echo the Dolphin vibes on this track 🔥

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and for the comment. I did play ecco the dolphin (on the Sega Genesis?) at a friend's house as a child, so perhaps it subliminally influenced me!

[@Dork2099]

LOVE this. Just spent a couple of hours in a coffee shop with your video in one ear and my XFM in the other. Ended up with a lovely piece. Thank you so much!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. Your story is exactly the type of outcome I hope for videos like this. Thanks for sharing, and I'm glad you had fun!

[@ChrisLodyMusic]

Hey Chalk Walk, great video. I only just realised how busy you've been making tutorials for the XFM, you should share these over on the Facebook group as I'm sure the group would find them very useful 😁

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

I'd love to engage with the Liven user community, but I don't use Facebook/have a Facebook account. That's also why I've been trying to get the reddit sub r/sonicware more active: to create a secondary community to share my appreciation for the Liven devices with the non-Facebook using crowd.

[@SeanKearney]

Beautiful summary of generative principles

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. I'm always interested in experimenting with middle grounds between purely algorithmic/mechanical music making and traditionally composed music: I could imagine using methods like this to accompany fully described elements.

[@ResAffolterSoundproductions]

First of all… thank you thousand times for your tutorials with the liven xfm!!!!!! I’m still learning it, but for me, this is a absolut cult synthesizer 😃✨🌈🙏🏻🍀🕊🌸

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for the comment, and for watching. I feel like the Liven XFM went under the radar a bit, but it really has a lot to offer; I can see what you mean about it getting a cult following: for the price it really is hard to beat!

[@ResAffolterSoundproductions]

@@ChalkWalkMusic absolut yes… i think it is great that the Liven Xfm is not perfect and have some edges. But as I saw in your great video… you can do so much great stuff with it. Thx again Chalk! 🙏🏻🌈🕊✨

[@Elder-Sage]

THANK YOU! I've noticed the clipping issues from time to time. Most often it would be clip before going into the FX unit. Didn't cross my mind the output volume was digital. I kept reducing the level going from synth section to FX chain. This however sometimes altered sound of the effect.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Aha, I dropped that tip in here but didn't know if anyone would catch it: I'm glad someone did. The story is a little more complicated than I stated, and I'm not 100% sure on the details. I first noticed it with a sub bass sound which I cranked all the way up at the channel level (to hear it) but it turned out the subsonic parts were eating up all the headroom and clipping. What appears to happen is that the channel levels can go above unity so you can clip when summing for output and the send levels are additive, so they can clip into the effects and potentially out of them too. The master volume seems to attenuate all the signal paths to the output equally so, if you are getting clipping in device, turning the master volume down reduces all the signal levels gaining you headroom: this is very unexpected behaviour for sure.

[@inthefade]

@@ChalkWalkMusic That is very odd. If I'm understanding correctly, keeping the master volume lower and controlling volume with a mixer fader and maybe gain would be best practice. What is the bit depth of the digital output, I wonder? If it is digital volume I would hope it is summing at 24-bit and a 24-bit DAC, but at this price that might be a lot to ask.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

@@inthefade I couldn't tell you what the bit depth of the DAC is, but if I had to guess I'd guess 16-bit. In any case though, I'd describe this as leaning more on the 'lofi' FM than the cleanest/highest fidelity. The more you turn down the main volume, the more headroom you gain, but the more "bits" of fidelity you are losing. I tend to set the main volume out at 50%; I presume it's not a linear scale so this might be a 4x volume reduction, so you are losing 2 bits of fidelity. 14 bits; 2 to the power of 14 is 16384... the base 10 logarithm of that is 4.2144, and 20db represents 10x increase, so you retain 84db of dynamic range (you lost 12db) which is sufficient for almost any purpose. This increases your noise floor for the instrument by those 12db too, but often you are working with relatively low noise floor, so this is usually acceptable.

[@MattGreerMusic]

Cool video. Educational and interesting. I agree about the "hotness" of the master volume but I must admit I crank it to 100% and gainstage my interface lower because I kind of like the way it dirties things up. In fact, it's one thing I like about the XFM in general is how non-pristine, warm and crusty it can be. That (and for other reasons) makes it rather unique in the FM synthesis world.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for the comment, and for watching! I don't mind the sound breaking up a little, but at times I find it ends up happening unexpectedly and to a significant degree, for example only once you bring in all four tracks and effects. Knowing you can turn down the master volume to reduce any internal clipping reduces my concern about working with it. I think it has enough internal headroom when all the tracks stay at the default volume (63), but when you increase them (or add in a lot to the sends), it's possible to hit the ceiling. I find this happens most with bass elements which (when clean) I often turn up to high track levels, e.g 120+ (taking a lot of headroom). The result has been that I mostly leave the master volume it at 50%, and try and balance the tracks by turning things down rather than up. In any case, I appreciate your input, and thanks again for watching!

[@giannifarris6060]

Very clever ways to use the XFm functions !

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for the comment, and for watching my video. I enjoy the flexibility of the sequencer on the Liven XFM. I'm sure there are a whole lot of ways to extract more from it that I haven't even discovered yet!

[@printingnature]

Well made, thank you

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching: I appreciate your support!

[@maykit]

Great tutorial and a great t-shirt.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the tutorial and appreciate the t-shirt: thanks for watching!

[@danielbluez]

Some very good ideas here, thanks for sharing! l'm going to replicate this and maybe add a 2 note lengh melody for more note lemgth variation... and a nts1 for reverb duties. Best.

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching. Given the sequencer is 64 steps long there is definitely the possibility of lots more variation. I always hope that people will take these ideas and go further. Good luck, and I hope you get some nice results!

[@DylanFerno]

Great tutorial thank you!

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for your comment, and for watching; I've been making tutorials around a whole lot of other hardware/methods, but I'm sure I'll be back to the Livens again soon!

[@bikegarrett]

I very much enjoyed what you created keeping it simple and it sounded beautiful I have a couple questions about how to what the sweep actually does and in real time how to have it record the actual length of the note without having to push the tie button or just when you release the note it's done I've taken everything you taught me and been putting it into my latest creations

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

If you check my other videos I made one on parameter locking and sweep where I demonstrate sweep. Essentially it allows you to add a fixed range, direction and rate pitch bend on the attack of every note you play. In a sense it's a much better fit for the chip tune aesthetic of the Liven 8bit Warps (I basically never use it on the Liven XFM). There are several ways to record notes. The first way is with the record button not illuminated you hold a sequencer step and press a note: this method never supports tie. The other methods depend on the "tie state"; to check this hold "tie" and look at the tie button on the right: if it's on, tie is enabled, if it's off it's not (press it to toggle). When tie is not enabled, in realtime recording (record on and transport running), it only records a note on the step it was on when you hit the chord (no note length). If you have tie on, realtime record includes the note lengths. The final method to make tied notes is in record mode but without the transport running. If tie is disabled, you can press and hold a step and a chord, then press a second step (or turn the value knob) and all steps between and including the two you choose get the chord repeated on each step. If you do the same with tie enabled you get the chord tied. When recording in realtime I've found a couple of annoyances. First, if you use precount it can be hard to record the first beat on time. Instead I usually let the sequencer loop back to the one. Second, if you hold a chord, its easy to accidentally extend one or more of its not one step too far. To avoid this, I always try and release the chord as soon as the sequencer reaches the final step I want the chord playing on.

[@bikegarrett]

@@ChalkWalkMusic you've been so helpful man I knew you were the right guy to ask and I appreciate you taking your time to answer thank you so much

[@inthefade]

Run on sentence alert! ;)

[@hobbowizardanimations]

Xfm is awesome

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and I appreciate your support.

[@paulsarodh5460]

superb 😄😅👭👬

[@ChalkWalkMusic]

Thanks for watching, and I appreciate your support!