Slice to Midi - MPC Style by Saving Presets in Ableton Live Tutorial

Todays tutorial will be covering a GREAT little technique I recently learned on how to have MPC style sample slicing of any sample by using slice to midi. What we will be doing is saving macro settings from simpler within a drum rack which can be used and saved to your ableton defaults. This is great for having the ability to cut up anything into a drum rack, and then alter the basic sampling parameters like START, END, TRANSPOSE, VOLUME, etc. Without doing this, you would have to map each one individually. This is also nice to making random sounds for your pads to then reuse in production. You could even, just JAM away on a synth, record it, slice it all up to midi, and then slice it more with your presets...and get some awesome stab sounds. Anyway, lets begin.

The first thing we are going to want to do is put in a new midi track with a drum rack in it. After that, open up the device chain, and within it, you want to put a SIMPLER. Make sure to open up the simpler SAMPLE view also. It should look like this -


Now, what we are going to want to do, is map some of the options within the simpler to the macros on the left by clicking the MAPMODE (green) button. You can put anything you want, but if you would like a more mpc style control, I would recommend these -

Start
Length
Attack
Release
Transpose
Spread
(your choice)
Volume

The reason I leave a YOUR CHOICE in there, is because sometimes...you will want to use something based off of what you are making. Like controlling a LFO, or LFO frequency. Its nice to still have a free button to work with instead of using them all up. Mine looks like this -



Also, if you would like the 2nd sample to shut off when you start the next one, you should probably put a CHOKE on this. So go to the IN/OUT icon on the left side of the drum rack, and then under choke, select 1. -


Now, the trick to this is WHERE YOU SAVE IT. You cannot just SAVE IT ANYWHERE. There is a special location it must be saved. Go up to your browser, and click ANYof the file icons (1,2,3). Then, select your ableton library -


After that, select "defaults" and then "slicing". You will want to drag your drum rack into this folder and then name it. Mine is named MPC for Slicing -


Now you can go ahead and DELETE that midi track. We dont need it anymore.

Now, you want to select a file that you would like to slice to midi. In the example, I have a short synth sample I layered and sequenced, and I am eager to see what stabs I can make out of it. Make sure you have your start and stop points where you want them to be within that sample. Also realize that if your sample is long, you cannot use the 1/16 or 1/32 options because your drum pad simply does not have enough spaces to put your sliced samples. So, crop your MAIN sample first before you do this. My sample is just within an audio track in my ableton set like this -


Now, you are going to want to RIGHT CLICK your sample and select "slice to new midi track" -


Next, the little box will show up asking you WHERE you want to make your slices. In my case in the following picture, I chose 16th notes. You can choose the transients, or whatever you would like. What is nice about this method, is that since you already made the preset to be able to control the start and length of the sample...its ok to choose larger sizes like 1/4 notes because you can shape the sample anyway once it is within your drum kit.

Now, in the second drop down box, you should see the preset that we just made. Again, mine is called MPC for Slicing -


After you have selected that, click ok. This will now slice your sample into your drum kit preset. Mine looks like this -


Now, all you need to do is MAP OUT your macros to a controller that you like, and you are good to go. I use my trigger finger for this, which conveniently has 8 knobs that match the macros section, which is really nice. You can control the parameters of each macro by clicking the green "MAP MODE" button, and editing them. One that I usually do is the "transpose"...because it goes from -48st - +48st....which is usually too much (unless I am getting crazy).

Anyway, using this method, you will have a much more HANDS ON approach to slicing your samples. By then SAVING your drum racks when you finished, you can save whole racks of crazy sounds that can be used in production later. This is where randomization comes into music a little. You can just rock out anything on a few synths, make a small beatless songs....slice it up, and then have your own set of 128 different stabs to use....or whatever you want to create!

I hope this helped! Keep making tunes!

Peace!

FroBot

Mapping VST Sound Presets to Knobs on your Controller

Todays tutorial may be common sense to a lot of people, but for a lot of beginners, one very frustrating thing is the inability to change softsynth sounds without using your mouse or entering into the plug-in's interface. This is especially annoying for people who are coming from real synthesizers that had the ability to change the sound right at their fingertips. This is especially good for live performances when you want to switch between different synth sounds (or even different soft synth programs) on the fly and without going to your computer. Today, we will be mapping a knob on a midi controller to change through different synth banks.

The first thing we want to do is make a new midi track and insert in a blank instrument rack. After that, we want to open the device chain window via the little button the the left of the instrument rack that looks like 3 lines. Now you have the device chain window open for dropping in instruments. Now, just drop in as many instruments (softsynths, ableton sounds, etc) as you like. In mine, I have 13 ZEBRA soft synths (but you can use different ones if you like) -

Remember to not go TOO crazy within a chain because it does take a lot of CPU load if you have 20 or 30 synths up. Once you have all the synths put in that you want, you need to click the other 2 icons on the left side of the instrument rack so you can see your macros and also your softsynth box. (like the picture above)

Now, what we are going to be doing, is mapping the on/off buttons for each of the softsynths, to macro 1. To do this, follow these instructions -

1. Click the little map mode button above your macros. (everything will be green)
2. Click the on/off button of the 1st softsynth (to the left of the synth name)
3. Click MAP under Macro 1.
(Go to synth 2,3,4,etc... and repeat this process for all of your softsynths)

Now, what we have done is mapped the on and off to macro 1. (which we will later map to a knob on the controller)

Now, the key to this is changing the midi min/max of each of the on/off buttons so it works best with your controller.

Remember, with midi, you have 1 - 127 values on any given knob. I am using a microkontrol which happens to have tiny little CLICKS every time I move it. Its just how they made the controller...you can actually feel little clicks when you move the knob. Every click is one midi value UP or DOWN. So, in my example, my midi min/max are very close because I can feel 1 click, 2 clicks, etc. If you are using a really analog feeling knob, you may be better to make your mapping increments bigger. Mine is like this -

My min and max are only 1 apart, for easy clicking on the midi controller. You may be better off doing something like this -

Min 1 Max 10
Min 11 Max 20
Min 21 Max 30

This is if your controller knob does not have the CLICKING feel that mine does. I happen to like the fact that it clicks, because I can easily tell how many midi values I am going up or down....so my min & max values are very low.

Now, you have a nice macro that will switch between all of your synths in that device chain. Last thing you need to do is go into your NORMAL mapping mode (top right of the ableton screen) and map that new macro to a knob on your controller like this -

Now, you can easily toggle between all of your synths in the device chain just by moving one knob on your controller. What is also nice about this, is that you can go into any one of those softsynths and change the sounds to what you are looking for, and if will automatically save them to that set as long as you click SAVE within your ableton set.

Another nice thing, is that you can add effects (especially volume utility) to each individual chain to make sure each volume is exactly the same no matter which sound you switch too. This can be very important when playing live and switching through sounds in the middle of a jam. If you want your volumes to stay the same, either change the master volume within the softsynth, or, add a utility to the end of the chain. You can also add other effects to the chain if you would like that effect to always be on a certain row in your device chain. This can be nice if you make the SAME synth sound on a few of the devices, but have different effects on each so it sounds a little different throughout a certain jam. Very handy when you want to use a different effect than the ones you have mapped out to your controller already....and makes it easy to get rid of it when you are finished with it (just go to another synth in the chain that does not have it).

I really like this because it lets me switch through sounds that I have pre-made, and really like (just like save banks on a regular synth).

Anyway, thats it for mapping vst sound presets. Have fun improving!