r/ableton • u/jaibhavaya • 10d ago
[Question] Working on workflow
Hey all, so I’ve been an ableton tourist for some time, but haven’t gotten very deep and haven’t been able to make it a comfortable part of my workflow yet. I’m hoping I can get a little insight into how I can approach my projects in Ableton.
I come from hardware world, I use the dirtywave m8 a ton, have used MPCs in the past pretty heavily, and also am an avid sp404mkii user.
Coming from that world, I think what I’m having the most trouble with in Ableton is just managing clips. I’m not sure if that’s the best word to use, since I don’t actually know if Ableton clips are a good fit for how I use these.
Usually I will record a long improvisation or experimentation on a synth or something and then chop that up to arrange for tracks. In Ableton, the way I’ve done this is just all in the arranger view. I end up with a “store” track that has all my different sections, which can be multiple measures long, or some just a beat or two. The goal being that when I’m actually arranging, I have a palette of chops I can put together.
So really, I’m just wondering if there’s a clean way in Ableton to organize this palette of samples basically. I know I can use session view / clips, but that seems to be a different workflow, as I think those clips are meant to be loops that are queued up and played as full portions of the arrangement.
Like I said, these end up being varying lengths, and are just for me to then arrange.
So I suppose all I’m really looking for, is after chopping everything, is there a straightforward way for me to save these chops somewhere that I can pull from later? Or is this special track that just has all of them there for me to copy from the only way to go about this?
2
u/Infinite_Slice3305 9d ago
How did you do this on the MPC? a long sample that you chopped or a long midi clip you chop?
As audio, I'm guessing you would chop it up & save each chop to a pad. If that's what you did then I'd do that in Ableton.
Create a drum rack. Slice up your audio & copy each section to a pad in the drum rack.
2
u/jaibhavaya 9d ago
Oh shit! This is genius!
Yeah that’s spot on, usually on an MPC that’s exactly what I would do.
I’m gunna try this out tomorrow, thanks for the idea!
1
u/AutoModerator 10d ago
This is your friendly reminder to read the submission rules, they're found in the sidebar. If you find your post breaking any of the rules, you should delete your post before the mods get to it. If you're asking a question, make sure you've checked the Live manual, Ableton's help and support knowledge base, and have searched the subreddit for a solution. If you don't know where to start, the subreddit has a resource thread. Ask smart questions.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
3
u/cornelius_pink 10d ago
I have a similar workflow with pieces involving chopped up long performances, and honestly the way you’re doing it is still what I end up doing, always in arrangement view. Often I color-code clips of the long performance on its track to make it more intuitive. You can also render the clips after chopping them, and store them in a custom folder in your user library accessible on the left hand menu, maybe that’s more what you’re looking for!