Learn Live: Follow Actions

Learn how to create evolving grooves, randomized glitch effects, add chance to how clips play back in your set and much more with the new Follow Action capabilities in Live 11.
Watch the entire Learn Live series here: bit.ly/37lA63p
#abletonlive #learnlive #live11

[@LUCKYKATmeowsic]

The follow action on entire scenes should have been talked about much more than a few seconds right at the end. That is a crucial part of a live performance. Any other links to this in more focus?

[@NakulKrishna]

It doesn’t even work reliably

[@patcupo]

Just like grouping tracks, I’d love the ability to group scenes. All of the clips within a group of scenes would see each other and interact as per usual. The current method of doing this is to place a blank scene between blocks of clips and manually moving focus to the next block of clips. Follow actions between groups of scenes would be great too. For example: each group is a song, the scenes within a group are the parts of a song, etc. Besides the performance aspect, it’d just be a nice visual house cleaning feature so you can focus on a particular group of scenes at a time.

[@TheMoonmoonmoon]

+1 for this. Just for the visual tidiness. To have the top line in the scene group launch the first scene in the group, and the group open automatically when this is launched.

[@HeathHolme]

🖤a bit of Follow Action - Action. One of the most under used & under rated features of Ableton Live!!

[@alehandro_61]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

[@mortezakarimzadeh4862]

This was really really useful thanks 😊

[@cherryalav]

Thank you So helpful!

[@DanielMaruniak]

Legato mode! Did not know that! Thank you!

[@guidewired]

Nice to learn more about the unlink and legato options ;-)

[@NovaGladson]

Is it possible to achieve Follow Actions between Tracks.? For example, if track2 clip is triggered, track1 clip has to be stopped. OR if track1 clip is stopped, track2 clip should be automatically triggered

[@Ableton]

Hi there. Thanks for the comment. No, traditional follow actions will only work within the track. However, you can now apply follow actions to Scenes, so we invite you to try that out and see if you can create a workflow that does what you're looking for. It should be possible using follow actions on scenes. Thanks - Ableton

[@essn87]

How is 4:27 achieved? I cannot find any info how can I have multiple clips within the same track to have different synth settings. Is it some instrument rack feature? The only way that I know of to do it, is via chain selection and then automating in per clip. Is there any easier way? Thanks!

[@Ableton]

Hi there - Thank you for the comment. These are actually audio recordings of different synth sounds, not different synth settings. If you do the same with MIDI clips, each clip can automate synth parameters or chain selector for multi-timbral racks via Clip Envelopes. Hope this helps! Thanks - Ableton

[@apollomarconi]

I feel that perhaps I am missing the point and would love to be set straight. Is this aimed at live performance? I cannot see the benefit to a composer or arranger [except for some of the randomization which looks fun & useful] over workshopping a bunch of ideas in Session & then building something in Arrangement, at least for those that would like a record of what occurs and when it occurs in the timeline of a piece of music. Where is the record or database containing the chain of events we are building?

[@lucyloveskouta]

Yeah same here

[@Teamstack]

Definitely aimed at live performances

[@peen2804]

I mean you answered your own question in the first paragraph. Yes this is obviously aimed at live performance, you even explained why it wouldn’t make sense for composition and arrangement

[@apollomarconi]

@@peen2804 Glad you're on board with me thinking things through while writing them in a sentence. If I were a minimalist I'd probably have avoided thinking aloud, but sometimes there are others in the same boat who might benefit. Did you feel I was perhaps being sarcastic? Not at all my good man.

[@SkunkFLoes]

Follow actions have been key for me for years and I'm not a "live" performer. Obviously it depends on the type of music you're working with but I've found it to be very helpful in arrangements over the years (before these new features). It's helpful with drums/percs to create a myriad of variations set interesting unlinked timing (with Legato) then resample into a new track to get a more interesting part or completely reshape a groove; the same technique is useful (for me) with vocals, FX and samples. Ableton has at least OneThing video about this (Dolltrick doing vocal comps)...Also using very basic linked follow actions on complex clips can help to keep a part from feeling dull during an arrangement whilst letting you focus on other more dynamic parts of your arrangement (if you do your arrangements live) which can be very helpful to the arrangement work flow IMO

[@TheMoonmoonmoon]

Is there a way to make the 'playhead' (focused scene) move down automatically when follow actions are used on entire scenes? I want an entire scene to follow on but would be handy in a live situation for the scene AFTER that to be focused so the next press can cue it and keep the flow downwards.

[@Ableton]

Hi Frank - Thanks for the comment. If we're understanding your wish, this may not be possible. However, you should experiment with the setting "Select Next Scene On Launch" in the Record/Warp/Launch section of Live's preferences. This may give you behavior that is close to what you're looking for. Hope this helps. Thanks, Ableton

[@TheMoonmoonmoon]

@@Ableton Hi, that setting gives the behaviour I want for normal scene to scene playback of a set. But if a scene has a follow on action [100% Next] then the next scene that is selected on launch is the scene that will already launch automatically due to the follow on.... in this instance it'd be useful to have the scene after that selected ready to play, but it seems not possible. Basically I'm trying to create a live show scene cueing flow similar to Qlab. 'Select next scene on launch' is perfect, but scene follow ons mean I have to move the focus down manually.

[@Ableton]

Hi Frank - Thanks for the response. Sorry to say, I don't think the behavior you described is supported in Live. There may be ways to replicate similar behavior with creative workflow creation or even some Max for Live devices, but we don't have that info for you here. We invite you to submit a feature request detailing your requested feature here: bit.ly/2doYK8b Cheers! Ableton

[@eheheheheheheheh]

Simple Question: just want to start a clip by fadding in, just as example 4/4, record my stuff, and want the clip after the time just play as a loop. It is possible? My old Looper can this, but i cant find how to fix it in ableton.

[@Ableton]

Hi there - Thanks for the comment. There are different ways to achieve the effect you're looking for in Live - for example, setting an automation for the volume to fade in and working from there. Please consider contacting an Ableton Certified Trainer as they are the experts in helping you to craft the workflow you're looking for: bit.ly/49ahUHi . Thanks - Ableton

[@badcoproduction9100]

Best 🔥

[@yeahwhat]

Demonstrated is Follow Action A ... but what of B? Please explain B. Why is there and how is it used.

[@TheMoonmoonmoon]

There's a slider with a percentage chance of A or B happening as the follow action. So you can use B as an alternative to A that happens 50% of the time or 20% of the time, etc. Nice for making things like drum fills not happen the same way every time.

[@bottbash]

NED RUSH

[@john_atco]

Yes. He did a very good vid on the possibilities of follow actions some time ago.

[@spenatk4812]

Love you so much guuuuys!!!!! Now I can (almost) use this instead of the best Clyphx, which doesn't work on 11. Thank you so much....💙

[@CCP-pb5ss]

im so baffled by this shii.. i got a bunch of full length tracks i wanna play top to bottom as scenes when the first track (clip) ends..it just stops..no matter the follow action if i set A follow action to Next..it plays 1 second then changes to next clip why isnt there a simple option to press play like a winamp playlist

[@EASY-Hans-Helmut-Schlicht]

Kann mir mal jemand auf Deutsch erklären, was Follow Action genau macht?

[@juwonnnnn]

👍

[@milztempelrowski9281]

pretty fucking awesome gotta say especially the legato-stuff almost making arrangementview obsolete almost

[@gab_gallard]

I agree that the legato function is great, but how does it make Arrangement obsolete?

[@peen2804]

because people for some reason feel the need to champion either session view or arrangement view as being superior (whatever one the person speaking uses most is the “best”) and it’s weird af considering they are 2 entirely different things with entirely different uses and feature sets that are designed to be used in tandem. People will say literally anything to try and convince themselves their preferences are “correct” Take a look at comments on almost any video regarding session or arrangement views and you’ll see what I mean.

[@middle_pickup]

Foyst.

[@rickysheaves2738]

Easily the most confusing and least informative video in the whole series. That stupid mouse pointer is flying on top of all the clips in every example and the viewer has no idea whether it's clicking on them or the follow actions are triggering the clips. Ostensibly, the follow actions are in control, but why confuse the demo with a masturbatorial mouse operator?