Using Ableton as a Live Keyboard Rig

[@herschoolcolors]

Superb tutorial. Touring through all the different methods someone might use depending on the setup is really helpful and it also helps illuminate some of the less obvious logic undergirding ableton. Thanks a bunch. You deserve way way more subscribers.

[@joshtrinnaman]

Really happy to read this as this is pretty much exactly what I'm aiming to do with my vids! Too many tutorials gloss over things or don't explain things clearly for people who haven't already been producing or using software for ages. Hope I'm doing okay on that. Thanks for your comment, hope it helps! :)

[@peeckle1657]

So cool, this is by far the best video on explaining so much awesome stuff in one video, i already knew most of it but if i was starting out this would be the video to goto. Great work, just listened to your music, sounds awesome btw 🙏. Subscribed

[@joshtrinnaman]

Awh cheers for those very kind words! Very happy to hear that, aimed to cover most important things I could think of for folks starting out. Glad you enjoy :)

[@MrSqer555]

hey! Great video and quility, thanks a lot. Did you ever consider routing all synths via "main" midi track? I saw a video saying that 1 track in Ableton literally uses one core of the processor, that way you could utilize multicore: main empty midi track -> all synths are on separate tracks and get input from the main midi track

[@joshtrinnaman]

Cheers! Worth being aware of that, but personally think this way of maximising CPU is better-suited to production contexts / making / mixing tracks, not this context of a live performance rig. To me the multi-track method adds variables or risks of things going wrong at a gig, adds to the list of things that you need to remember to check before each performance. E.g if you have a Rhodes piano sound on Track 1 and Synth on Track 2, and you want to switch between them, you have to always check those little red 'Record Arm' buttons at the bottom of each track are definitely on, check all your Monitoring settings etc, check automation's enabled, it goes on. If you wanna switch from Track 1 to Track 2 and havent got 'Record Arm' enabled on both tracks, you won't hear anything even if MIDI is being sent to them. Its a small but important detail that these 'Record Arm' buttons can be a bit pesky, and you can easily accidentally turn them off without realising. Basically you can be playing your Rhodes sound all fine, but then you switch to your other sound and nothing plays, and then you're just stood there hitting a keyboard that makes no sound. This is not fun if it happens to you at a gig or festival, particularly if its a solo keys moment :D Apply this to more than 2 instrument sounds, and you're just adding up things you need to check before playing, which isnt always ideal in the rush of a gig setup; super-easy to overlook it. Thats just 1 reason why I prefer using a single track

[@adamznaidi]

Banger video, though one potential limitation of the rack method is not being able to easily vary the combination of instruments without making duplicates. (Rhodes+pad in verse…pad+piano in chorus…rhodes plus piano in middle 8 etc) I set my instruments up on different midi tracks, and just automate the speaker on and off on each channel for hard cuts, or use utility to cut the volume after the instrument but before the delays (if I’m using specific ones on that channel) so I can keep any trails going.

[@joshtrinnaman]

You're absolutely right, if you set things up the way I've done here that is a limitation if you want to stack up and play 2 or more different synths at once. You can still achieve that using a single track with an Instrument Rack and the Chain Selector rather than using multiple MIDI tracks I think though? For example you could stack all 3 sounds you mentioned (rhodes, pad, piano) to a single Chain, e.g. 8-8. Then you can automate the Speaker On/Offs for the individual instruments assigned to that chain for any combination of the 3 or more together within MIDI Clips. To still get the trails happening instead of hard cuts between sounds from the speakers on/off'ing, it also works to gradually automate volume/gain down via an Instrument's internal Output gain control, rather than using Ableton's Track Volume Faders, or disabling the entire output via Speaker On/Off or bypassing the Plugin. That way, the last bit of the signal will still feed into a delay or reverb or whatever you have after it, rather than just shutting it all off entirely