Made in Ableton Live: Rachel K Collier on live looping, organizing Live Sets and more

Check out Rachel K Collier using looping channels and intuitive audio routing to make an uplifting club track shaped by the sound of her own voice.
Watch the entire Made in Ableton Live series: www.ableton.com/blog/ground-w...
00:00 Intro
00:13 Set-Up
03:25 Drums
05:05 Chords
06:08 Vocals
08:35 Verse
09:35 Preparing a live looping performance
13:10 Song performance
#abletonlive #madeinlive #live10

[@RachelKCollierRKC]

woooooo Thanks for having me @ableton :) hope this helps everybody get going with this!!!!!

[@hereismatias]

You're an excellent instructor, Rachel!

[@sebanrocks]

You played fantastic while being very simple about explaining why ableton is so easy to use.

[@brenttauromusic]

Great stuff, Rachel! Thanks for sharing your valuable insight. :)

[@MauryaChannel01]

Rachel K Collier Excelente job ! Enjoyed every single second !

[@dashrando7892]

You're so dope. I just finally picked up a Push and your videos are super inspirational. Cheers!

[@infinitepete2799]

As an oldhead of 57, I'm a bit slow on the uptake, so I like simple and direct explanations. With my interest in live looping recently been piqued, I've been tooling around for helpful videos. This video is outstanding in its clarity and simplicity. Rachel, you rock. Thanks so much. Keep creating magic!

[@drejey1931]

You inspire me Pete

[@colinpadley1897]

I can beat you as I'm nearly 62, bought a Scarlett 3rd generation about two years ago in lockdown, got scared off and it's been sitting gathering dust, but I'm really going to try to use it rather than it ending up on Ebay! This type of video is very helpful and great that experts like Rachel take the time to help us all.

[@owlmuso]

Thanks Rachel. Awesomely informative AND inspirational video

[@mesmogruvinski]

Me too. I'm 65.

[@tronlady1]

I love how she says “here” in that beautiful Welsh accent!

[@DamWnoZ]

give time-codes of it HERE, please

[@dleesnuts]

"Hyurre"

[@georgesonm1774]

yessss her accent... I'd love to sample her voice somewhere :)

[@Vasy2310]

@@DamWnoZ HERE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 0:19 1:02 1:13 1:18 1:27 1:48 2:10 2:39 2:59 3:10 3:21 3:43 6:52 6:58 7:27 8:15 8:19 8:40 8:46 9:57 10:10 10:19 11:22

[@tapehaze7377]

@@Vasy2310 You're doing the lord's work here brother

[@giobifasoli]

This was the most dense and useful 17 minutes of knowing things in the whole year

[@charmbelleza5542]

People with the "Collier" last name are instant music gods lol

[@rawnaqmusic]

Agreed !!!

[@SamSarmento]

Changing my name this week...

[@esmeegloria]

Riiiiight?? Coincidence I think not

[@darrenhirst9900]

The Welsh are well known for their music and this lady is no different. Brilliant.

[@shumakriss]

Side chain compression just clicked for me. I learned how side chaining works a couple months ago but didn't realize how institutional it was to the effect I've been hearing and wondering about for years! That performance was also really cool, it's great to see someone blend all of this analog and digital skill together so organically.

[@yogirulez]

She´s a killer combination of great vocalist, cool experienced keyboardist, technically oriented and super stylish and elegant. There are not so many people on planet Earth :) Well of inspiration

[@chromosundrift]

Rachel is my favourite musician discovery of the year. Such a gutsy producer with nasty synth sounds, wicked rhythms and an amazing voice! I found her on Andrew Huang's "4 artists, one synth" video. Rachel you are an inspiration! Evident here is your talent at clear communication. Love your speaking voice too.

[@DRRNNDGL]

Been using ableton almost the entire time I've been making music and somehow did not realise you could delete stop buttons on clips untill now

[@koalahabits3605]

Same!!

[@HardyCozen]

Same!!

[@bbxdesign]

Yeah I learned that years later when going through the manual.

[@AviIsAwesome]

I literally cried

[@eugenewogan7690]

John Cozen has

[@bryanmanio_]

Not only was the song great, but her way of teaching is really great - short and to the point, no fluff anywhere.

[@ektopia]

I’m not a live looper but learnt lots during this. Thanks.

[@kayzeetv]

This is really dope Rachel!

[@hugostiglitz7]

Yay for Wales!

[@margofreemusic]

This is the video I have been waiting for from you Rachel! Thank you so much for breaking your process down to the basics so grateful!!!

[@egnatu]

great video for beginners and was also enjoyable from the perspective of an experienced user. always nice to see the way others take on livelooping in ableton. gives me ideas to potentially add into my workflow. nice job

[@thegroove2000]

Ableton is a playground. So much fun.

[@drevnii_sound]

Thank you Rachel for generously sharing! :)

[@vanessalouzon]

Thank you so much for your talent and generosity!

[@h3rtz]

That was incredibly well explained and presented. And one of the few times I found a live looping performance musically interesting. Chapeau!

[@emmameilink5318]

Thank you so much Rachel, this is helping me A LOT!

[@philswan1455]

This is the best music making video on KZbin! I have just discovered your music and I love it! Very inspirational and I look forward to sharing my new music with you in the future 🫶

[@opris_music]

I love the way you guide us through this, and how calming your demeanor and voice is through it all :-)

[@stefanienava]

You're so good at explaining things. This has helped me a lot in my live looping journey. Thank you!

[@Ce1y]

Really happy to see Ableton do these insightful collabs with a lot of my favorite musical youtubers! Seeing their workflow is cool because it makes us see there’s different ways to things than the way we usually do them.

[@ConorEiffe]

The performance is incredible!

[@thomas_rellum]

I really enjoyed your performance thank you!

[@norabogel890]

This is phenomenal, thank you so much!

[@TheKASINOINC]

Dont get more talented, or Easy to follow. I Grabbed a Pencil and Pad. Welldone Ableton for being smart enough to Find this Lady.

[@ANDREABEDIN]

I understood lots of things in these 17 minutes than in my 4 years practice.. :D

[@Allan-et5ig]

Right! And she's right you have to practice them until they become second nature.

[@louie4426]

I would say you understood lots of things in these 17 minutes *because* of your 4 years of practice!

[@ANDREABEDIN]

@@louie4426 You' re right, Louie! :D I apprecciate your comment!

[@nalebale89]

Same here! The presentation was super educational!

[@vincenzodellama7158]

How does she stop the recording without pressing anything?

[@AndyCarolan]

Awesome! LOVED seeing the process behind the track. Thanks for sharing!

[@DopamineOverload]

She is totally brilliant. Loved this, and hope to see a lot more in this series.

[@tofuprius3384]

So cool! It’s not often I enjoy the music in a tutorial just as much as the instruction itself. This was super inspiring!

[@RachelKCollierRKC]

thank you Jonathan x

[@TadJennings]

Ok straight up 💯.. this Helped me so much I was never really sure how to switch from Boss to Looper’s to Ableton and this is amazing

[@RachelKCollierRKC]

Really happy to hear that :) x

[@RockstahRolln]

Amazing as always Rachel!!

[@davidgraham3162]

Such a good, clear demonstration. Wow! Appreciate you so much! Plus such a great talent and song too.

[@MaashuCookiemonster]

Huge fan of the music, this is not only a fantastic track but the production quality of the demo is top notch. Super brave to show people what's behind the Wizard's curtain. My only complaint is that it wasn't a 17-minute version of the song ;)

[@RachelKCollierRKC]

I like these type of complaints xxx

[@Art_Of_Sound]

Well thought out rig...minimal and expansive at the same time. Well done Rachel. I especially love that you present in such a modest and humble way...makes you so much more credible. Great soundsmith! Excellent song too!

[@andreaszatmari7612]

This is so informative and clearly explained, thank you! You rock!

[@mombof]

great tut! definitely one of the besttutorials I've seen on live looping

[@ryansecor]

She’s one of the best. Very inspiring what one person is able to accomplish.

[@RebelHippyProductions]

Thank you so much Ableton and RKC for this PHENOMENAL tutorial, i cannot wait to commence my journey, this video gave me such a great foundation in understanding things I didnt even know how to research (huge imogen heap and james blake fan) looking forward to supporting RKC as an artist now that ive discovered her :) health and growth to all

[@carloscapistrano]

This is by far the most comprehensive content you've placed in your channel. Kudos to Rachel for laying it down so simple like this. Thank you! 👍

[@jarrald6227]

Great tutorial as always, really clear and picked up some good tips. Thanks Rachel

[@user-pg6hz6cp9w]

Very cool and very enjoyable! You have a great personality.

[@multimediahelp1]

Really cool insight on how create music, Rachel is cool!

[@danielkonieczny852]

Definitely cool to be true

[@table9music]

This is really interesting to see your Ableton setup. Thanks for showing!

[@dianamusic247]

This is unbelievable 🤯😮❤️ Amazing performance!

[@JonathanHatcher]

This performance made my day! One of the reasons I love Ableton so much: it has the most creative and amazing users in the world.

[@I.got.ways_Valentina]

Mine too))

[@alemusicgirl]

she is amazing .. good job Ableton keeping up in puhing more female producers into the scene

[@RakuRecords]

Very informative and one of the, if not the, best looping demonstrations I’ve seen yet! Also a very nice song. Kudos Rachel!

[@junelopez9520]

always incredible -thank you

[@judahstephens3]

You are awesome Rachel.. N apart from being an amazing musician, your a great teacher too.. god bless 😁

[@227]

Every time I see a video with Rachel K Collier, I walk away convinced that she's a musical genius and that everyone else should just pack it up and go home. I don't even use Ableton. It's just interesting watching insanely talented people work.

[@KeithWilsonUK]

That routing for different audio outs is so so simple, I've never thought of using it like that! Thanks for sharing!

[@cloudstarclaudia]

You video is exactly what I needed. Thank you. You have changed my world girl!!!

[@RiteshNayak]

Great video Rachel. I cannot believe Ableton requires me to buy a $1000 Push to record fixed length loops. Probably my biggest grouse with Ableton.

[@RachelKCollierRKC]

Hey dude- it’s not all about the fixed length- I actually did loads of this stuff before I had the fixed length button - but there are other ways you can do this plus other midi controllers that have this function - don’t let that one workflow thing hold you back !!!!!!! Xxx

[@bulemy]

Ableton live is one of the most flexible daw constructors, it is self-sufficient and functionally straight out of the box, "All in the box", but it would be VERY handy to have the following amenities in Suite: lynier and dynamic option of EQ8 (Must have) Comping, guys, 2020 year. We need it in 10.2 Pitch correction (has even daw which costs 200$, (logi), (cub) stud.one and even FL=D) / ARA2 support MPE support MULTIBAND FX'er (Like in BWS, Stud.one... You can create it in ableton, but it should be native) A native LFO tool. And a much more flexible one than the M4L one that comes with Live Suite. (and indeed it would be useful to add another plugins) Group freeze (would be nice, but not critical) map SOLO button in chain. Group and hide RETURN tracks. (Buses), => no limits on return tracks. Native Loudness meter device. (LUFS, RMS) / integrated LUFS meter in ableton Limiter. Easy and useful. Add a more flexible process of waveshaping with the ability to modulate from the volume level. We want Ableton to be the “Lego constructor” for creating anything else, right up emitting analog sound! full-fledged fullscreen disabling velocity sensitivity in midi keyboards! Thank you very much for your attention! I really hope to see some of the functions in 10.2 p.s www.reddit.com/r/ableton/comments/gj1w8l/ableton_live_102/

[@RachelKCollierRKC]

Pretty good suggestions 🤞

[@ChrisPBacon3000]

If it just had vocal comping, pitch correction, and proper hardware for arrangement/tracking, using Ableton wouldn't be such a hassle to actually do complete projects and finish them. Don't know why they don't have keyboard shortcuts (especially tracking/arrangement) labeled and built into Push pads. I'm supposed to memorize all that crap like I'm a child playing a video game, ...and have a keyboard in the way? Come on!

[@andersvincent]

Could not agree more. All great suggestions!

[@quizguru9563]

well, does it sound good or not??? i could elliberate myselfjust to listen to the technicalissues. Cheers soundcloud.com/shenzanolava/stranger

[@justduit1879]

+

[@Alpha-Andromeda]

SUPER CLEAR INFO AND CREATION thanks RACHEL🔥🌈🔥🌈 hope you’re in Ableton Channel a lot !!!

[@codediego]

this video was perfect, simple and easy to understand process, super talented Rachel and beautiful voice

[@shoutyahoo]

Hi Rachel, I found your presentation so calm and well thought out, very well organised. As a total newbie, I'm so grateful to now understand the concepts of what you are doing with each piece of equipment. Thanks for the clear explanation. I realise that I need something even more basic. Can you recommend a course that's for absolute newbies? Many thanks for your time.

[@RachelKCollierRKC]

hey I have one - maryspendermasterclass.teachable.com/p/how-to-produce-music-in-ableton-live

[@DJDiskmachine]

Rachel is such a treasure!

[@saren6538]

absolutely, very nice of her to go in depth and show this !

[@n8mogan]

You've inspired me to learn Ableton. Great video, great track. Thank you, Rachel!

[@iamcornelia]

Thank you Rachel 🙏

[@Houstonmusicacademy]

Nice job. Details left out: Definitely has an external mixer. Probably 16 channel. Running stereo pairs into the mixer. The Cue out on 7&8 routed to her headphones on the mixer. The mic she is using for presentation is on a separate external mixer channel. Everything that you hear is recorded to an external device, like a mini Tascam or Zoom digital recorder. The PUSH is only used for play/record/undo, though it could do much more. There is one MIDI track, the kick. You could add many more MIDI tracks and play them with PUSH. Also, Looper would be a great addition here.

[@wizerd2089]

Oh wow, that's good insight. Thank you! Pardon this beginner question, but do you suppose her mike going to a preamp before the interface?

[@henryjn]

@@wizerd2089 I guess her mic is running straight into the interface and using the pre's in that. Like the post above says the live Looper would be helpful here, but also there's so many different ways of doing things in Ableton. I think sometimes keeping things in separate visible clips like this is much easier to manage that using loopers live. In terms of the audio routing, some soundcards don't require you to do it all through sends. I'd just send each channel out to it's stereo out - and then in focusrite control just select what I want to go to headphones. Really great run through of set up though, and actually showing settings and details is super useful and interesting. More please.

[@kinosousa3623]

Also, from 13:10 for her live looping performance she sent all tracks to Master and didn't apply the Sends routing method she explained before. Why?

[@flaviedufour]

Thank you so much Rachel Your so clear! Can you tell me how to program the length to to bar if I don't have a midi pad like You? At the 3:40? Thank you!!!

[@sandgaijin]

That was amazing. I loved all the explanations of what's inside your chains and a very simple walkthrough of everything.

[@Dave311Freak]

Phenomenal tutorial and beautiful track. Thank you Ableton and RKC. This was so inspiring!

[@dougintothesunset]

Thank you for this. I recently upgraded from an RC-505 into an Ableton/Push2 system and this will help a lot. One question . . . In performance do you have a separate session file for each song?

[@netius9709]

Hello, very nice video! How do you manage to autostop recording without pressing record button again?

[@deladydj]

Yasssss!! So inspiring and I love that you share your knowledge, thank you 🙏✨

[@rupert8606]

Love this!!! Listened to the song at least 3 times

[@LiveLoopers]

12:41 - This is WICKED GOOD!

[@matiasgabarrot3]

Amazing! but i got a question: how set up the clips in every chanel to "record + play" after 1 bar? Its a push´s function or maybe its possible without this? Thanks!

[@jakateka]

There's a button on the Push named Fixed Length, which lets you predetermine the clip length. I don't think it's possible without it. However, you could predetermine loop length with Ableton's Looper device, using dummy clips and envelopes, but it's not as convenient as using clips.

[@lvt8studio]

thank you for the looping setup. definitely gonna try it out. awesome performance RKC

[@shawnkeys4712]

Absolutely superb video. Incredibly inspiring and so well explained. Thanks so much for this

[@matthiasschmidt5023]

hey thanks for that great tutorial :) One question: how do you default your clip length while playing live? the golf ball stops after 2 bars and directly plays back... Is this only possible with Push?

[@matheusatallah]

Is possible with "bink looper" (max for live)

[@mhektoen89]

I was wondering the same thing. Wonder if its possible without a max for live device.

[@renslaboratory16291]

had the same issue, jsut found it out: key-map the session-record-button, thats the 2nd record button from the left. and then activate the pre-counter aswell for 1 bar; each time u want to start recording u press on the mapped key, when u want to stop click on it again and it replays it.Also check that your global-launch-quantisation is on one bar, for general purposes. cheers ! :3

[@GuidoGautsch]

@@renslaboratory16291 cool trick!

[@user-sd2sr5we8t]

Круто!!

[@SteveWeave]

This was VERY helpful for me. I’m full of gratitude for this Rachel!

[@WeFightBalloons]

This is absolute gold!

[@benjamincl9996]

Shure sm58 sounds like that?

[@porangui]

Maybe I missed this but never got how she combines all the outputs into the master to send to Front of House. She has dedicated physical outs for each bus rather than using the master (set to 1/2 out). Is she mixing externally from Ableton? Also the Synth was also set to Out 1/2 - same as master which is confusing. Otherwise nice overview.

[@heiah]

yeah this is confusing me as well did you figure it out?

[@OppositeOfReality]

she has multiple outputs and sends in seperate channels of each instruments group so the live tech could mix them

[@jlphotographic]

Amazing! I’ve learned more from your short video than tens of hours of trawling ableton on KZbin, nice work Rachel, simple to understand instructions, but you’ve opened up so much, thank you!

[@naturalmindy]

the explanation is so smooth and also every element on the music, thanks for sharing :)

[@MrRyancangri]

Hi, how do you get the clip to record for 4 bars, and then continues to play without stopping it?

[@ivanyuriev9890]

it's a feature of ableton push called Fixed Length - it will automatically stop recording and start playing a clip after a 'fixed length'

[@ItsTimeToPull]

@@ivanyuriev9890 how would you do this without push

[@miked1869]

Me watching at 3:29 - "I thought I was pretty well up on digital music recording jargon, but 'golfball and cinnamon stick'... it'll be interesting to learn more about that." Me watching at 3:55 - "Oh."

[@KordTaylor]

Rachel is just amazing She is always inspiring. 🔥👏🏻

[@tommytommyfieser]

Goosebumps! So good!

[@itsBoo]

We need fixed length whithout the push

[@MrPranchinha]

Yeeees, any thoughts in how to do that?

[@margofreemusic]

Same problem, I think this is how they get people to buy it, it becomes mandatory when you get to a certain level

[@macpaz]

Could you explain what you mean by that?

[@itsBoo]

@@macpaz fixed length option allows you to record a clip with a specific number of bars but without creating the clip before recording or without the needing of hitting the stop button when the loop is about to end.

[@RonTheFlyingDutchman]

Use the Novation Launchpad Pro MK3 instead which is only half the price of the Push 2.

[@terminalbungus9566]

I didn't see you stop the recording ever; how did live determine how many beats/ bars each recording would be?

[@divasonic]

same question

[@diegoarias1789]

At 3:38 she sets a fixed loop length, all the loops are 2 bars long.

[@withallofmymight]

You could also midi map a foot pedal or other control to the "Session Record Button" to stop recording and launch the clip any time you like.

[@terminalbungus9566]

@@withallofmymight oh that's a thought. Thanks! I've been putting off learning the live part of Live for too long...

[@AudiotecnaColombia]

Very thorough explanation with all bells and whistles, thanks for the great work!

[@waynemiller6070]

Thanks for sharing the process.

[@ChaitanyaBhagwat]

Rachel is proof that you can get so much out of so less. You don't need new gear, and you don't need new plugins.

[@ChaitanyaBhagwat]

@John Johnson Yeah I mean, it's not really that less 😂 but if you put it in perspective, so many other pros use a lot more equipment, so this feels like a minimalistic setup.

[@dazboot2966]

@@ChaitanyaBhagwat That's true it's a relatively simple set up, but of course it's always what you do with it. Some of the best ever music is simple.

[@calebjohnson2795]

it really is so less compared to deadmau5s setup (;

[@dazboot2966]

@@calebjohnson2795 or Richard Devine - or Junkie XL

[@WTF1035]

I mean a push 2 still seems like expensive gear to me

[@sebanrocks]

Ableton is being very defenite about why they are better than other DAWs.

[@chrisrevel2801]

they aren't

[@FernandoDCDuarte]

@@chrisrevel2801 Debatable. What is for one will be different for others.

[@chrisrevel2801]

@M P most of the others that are not drag and drop loop oriented , that allow to record live instruments ( Comping , Melodyne ... ) easily while being able to handle a lot of plugins ( CPU consumption in Live is a disaster ) and a low latency . As a pre production tool live is ok but bitwig is getting better

[@sebanrocks]

They have been a step ahead years ago already with its live performance capabilities.

[@SweetScaleTV]

Nothing better than live looping!!! THIS IS DOPE!!

[@sfgarnishmusicschool8644]

This is a great demo! Nice work.

[@20680]

she was spotted using a Roland Mc-707 in the wild, Ableton goes "hey girl, here's a Push"

[@TWHOUSEMUSIC]

Hi Rachel, I've been following you for a long time and I totally admire you. I want to thank your tutorials since they have been a lot of learning for me. I also really admire your musical work. I will love your opinion in my videos since I am just starting with live looping and although I need a lot of practice, publishing live video forces me to improve. *Once again thank you very much for the inspiration. I love you*

[@arjanpetersen]

Dude … you ok? I guess you are five year old?

[@MrRhodesMusic]

This was great! Rachel has such an awesome energy about her

[@FernandoDCDuarte]

Awesome tips and awesome performance!