Audio to MIDI Conversion, Slicing to MIDI, and the Simpler Device

In the previous chapter, we discovered the amazing world of device racks in Live. We looked at some of the ways they can be utilized for production and live performance and had a look at the improvements that the Live 11 software update brought to us.

In this chapter, we are going to check out some of my personal favorites: the audio-to-MIDI conversion feature and the Simpler device, among others.

You will learn about some wonderful creative tools that can enhance your workflow and can be especially useful when you are in a creative block or just simply finding it hard to spike a first initial idea and get started.

Furthermore, you will discover how you can quickly turn MIDI information into audio in Live, which can be helpful, for example, to commit to your ideas.

By looking at the Simpler device, you will quickly realize how efficient it is for creative sampling and sound design!

We are going to cover...

Technical requirements

In order to follow along with this chapter, you will need the following:

• A computer with at least 8 GB of RAM and at least an Intel Core i5 processor
• A pair of headphones
• A copy of Live 11 Suite
• The Chapter 9 Ableton Live project

Let’s jump right into audio-to-MIDI conversion in the next section!

Introduction to audio-to-MIDI conversion

Audio-to-MIDI conversion is one of Live’s most exciting features.

Have you ever found an audio loop of chord progressions, for example, in which you absolutely loved the chords, but you didn’t really like the sound of the instrument that the chords were playing?

Or have you wished that you could modify some of these chords to your taste in terms of notation?

If you answered yes, it can go two ways… one is that you have fairly advanced music theory knowledge and you can play the chords yourself and pick a different instrument to play other than what the audio loop played.

The second reality is that you are struggling to play or recognize the chords from the audio loop. In this case, you would probably leave the audio loop and find another one in which you liked the chords and the sound too, and would settle on that. You don’t have to!

You can convert the audio loop into MIDI, which will enable you to...

Converting melody, harmony, and drums into MIDI

In this section, we will take a look at all three audio-to-MIDI conversion options and discover how you can utilize these in the best possible way.

Convert Melody to New MIDI Track

The Convert Melody to New MIDI Track command is useful for converting audio that contains monophonic information, meaning there is only one note playing. Melody conversion will work great on material such as vocals, basslines, instrument melodies (not chords), and, once again, instruments playing monophonic information.

In this example, we will convert an audio loop of a bass line into MIDI.

We will be working in the Arrangement View. However, audio-to-MIDI conversion works the same way in both Session View and Arrangement View.

There are multiple ways to perform the audio-to-MIDI conversion; let’s have a look at the first one:

1. You can open up the provided Chapter 9 project.
2. Navigate to the track called BASS LOOP.
3. Ctrl...

Converting MIDI into audio with Freeze and Flatten

Converting audio into MIDI is actually super easy in Live. Besides the obvious reasons why you would do this, it also gives you a chance to commit to your ideas by “printing” the MIDI track’s editable notes and device parameters, forcing you to commit to your ideas.

Also, working with audio takes way less CPU power than MIDI. Therefore, it can be a way to take some stress off your CPU.

Let’s have a look at how to do this:

1. In the Chapter 9 project, navigate to the track called E-PIANO.
2. Ctrl + click (right-click for Windows) on the track title bar and choose Freeze Track from the contextual menu.
3. Once the track is frozen, you are not able to tweak the parameters anymore. This is already taking stress off your CPU. This step is also crucial, as you will only see the Flatten option if the track is already frozen.
4. Now, in order to use Flatten on the track (flattening tracks will convert...

Slice to New MIDI Track

The Slice to New MIDI Track command will allow you to slice (or chop up) audio and trigger the slices with MIDI notes.

This way, you can re-sequence audio material, and play the slices like an instrument.

To do this, see the following:

1. Navigate in the project to the track called SLICE.
2. Make sure the audio is warped correctly.
3. Ctrl + click (right-click on Windows) on the audio clip and choose Slice to New MIDI track from the contextual menu.
4. You will see a pop-up window:

Figure 9.8 – Slice to New MIDI track pop-up window

The first dropdown (Create one slice per:) will allow you to choose how you want to slice the audio (by what value). I chose Transient, so Live will create a slice by each transient of the clip.

Tip

When I work with more complex audio material and I’d like to manipulate this slicing further, I tend to choose Create one slice per: Warp Marker. Before I got to this...

The Simpler device

The Simpler device is one of the best devices, in my opinion, that Live has to offer!

It is a MIDI instrument with a simple sampler and subtractive synth features. What makes it special is that you can slice and dice loops easily and play audio files back as an instrument with just a few clicks, so it is definitely one to get creative with.

Let’s take a look at it:

1. You can find the Simpler devicein in the browser under the Instruments category.
2. Once you have loaded the empty Simpler device, you can insert an audio sample where it says Drop Sample Here.
3. You can also bring this device up by dropping an audio file into a new empty MIDI track’s device area. This will place the audio automatically in the Simpler device.

I have already loaded a Simpler device with a sample in it onto the track called SIMPLER in the Chapter 9 project.

Figure 9.11 – The Simpler device with a vocal loop loaded in...

Summary

And with that, we have reached the end of this chapter.

I hope this chapter gets your creative juices flowing!

We looked at how we can use audio-to-MIDI conversion to extract MIDI data out of audio material and customize it to our taste so that we can build on it, which is sometimes just what we need when we don’t seem to be able to get started creatively.

We also looked at how to turn MIDI data into audio by using the Freeze and Flatten functions.

We also explored how we can slice audio to MIDI to be able to trigger the audio slices with MIDI data, as well as exploring the Simpler device, not just to slice and dice but also to have a look at the sound design possibilities that this “simple” but powerful device can provide us with.

In the next chapter, we will dive into arrangement techniques and project organization!