Discovering Some of Live 11’s Creative Audio Effects

In the previous chapter, we learned how we can use Take Lanes and comping in various ways to speed up our workflow and boost creativity. We also looked at the Track Linking feature, which enables us to record and edit multiple tracks simultaneously.

In this chapter, we will take a look at some of Live’s creative effects, which were released with the Live 11 software update.

We will also discover the difference between using effects inserted directly onto a track versus those inserted onto a return track.

Furthermore, we are going to explore various sidechaining techniques with multiple devices that Live has to offer.

We are going to cover the following topics in this chapter:

• Hybrid Reverb
• Other new and updated effect devices in Live 11
• Understanding the differences between insert effect chains and return tracks
• Looking into sidechaining techniques

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 7 Ableton Live Project

First, we are going to discover Hybrid Reverb and what makes it an outstanding reverb device that can be an amazing tool for sound design or to add a lusher texture and depth to your sounds.

Hybrid Reverb

As you probably already know, reverb is all around us at all times. When any sound occurs in any space, the sound sends sound waves out in all directions. These sound waves bounce around and reflect off different objects and surfaces we have in our space until the reflections die off. Just think about it; in a soundproofed, smaller, empty studio, if you clap your hands, you will hear very little reverb, if any. However, in a church, or even in your bathroom, you would hear quite a lot of reverb, which will vary based on the size of the space, the surfaces, and the objects around you.

Both reverb and delays are generally great devices to add depth and make our sounds more interesting.

Figure 7.1 – The Hybrid Reverb device

When we record any audio in an acoustically treated, controlled studio environment, we are aiming to record the signal as “dry” as possible, without any reverb or reflections. This will give us the...

Other new and updated effect devices in Live 11

Upon the release of Live 11, there was a wealth of new and updated devices.

Let’s discover these, starting with one of my personal favorites, Spectral Resonator.

Spectral Resonator

Spectral Resonator uses resonance and overtones to manipulate the tonal characteristics of the signal that it is applied to.

Figure 7.7 – The Spectral Resonator device

Spectral Resonator uses a spectrogram to display the affected frequencies. Let’s look at some of the settings of the device:

• The Harmonics setting at the top right of the spectrogram creates a kind of filtering effect, by applying more or less harmonics to change the “brightness” of the sound.
• We can also add modulation by selecting from Chorus, Wander, or Granular.
• We can also change the fundamental frequency/pitch of the resonator by using the Freq knob.
• We can adjust the Decay knob and damp high and...

Understanding the differences between Insert Effect Chains and Return Tracks

How we manage our effects in Live will not only impact our speed and how efficient our workflow is but also the CPU usage of our computer.

Effects can be used on a track in serial, meaning you put effects after each other, forming a single effect chain on the track.

This means the first effect’s output will feed into the effect after it, and so on.

However, what if you would like to apply, for example, reverb to a vocal track and a delay without the reverberated signal feeding into the delay device, so the two effects are used in parallel, not affecting each other?

Well, that’s when you could use return tracks and use the effects as “send effects.”

Let’s have a look at this.

In Figure 7.14, you can see that I inserted a Reverb and Delay device onto the vocal track called INSERT in the project.

This is the first scenario that I described previously. The...

Looking into sidechaining techniques

Sidechaining lets you use one track to trigger an effect on another. You must have heard, for example, a “pumping sound” on a synth, where the volume of the track drops each time the kick drum hits. That is done with sidechain compression. There are other effects in Live that allow sidechaining too, and we will discover them in this section of the chapter.

Let’s start with sidechain compression.

Sidechaining with compressors

As you probably already know, compressors help to even out the dynamics of a sound, by reducing louder peaks and moving them closer to the quieter parts of the signal.

When applying sidechain compression, the compressor will reduce the volume of the sound each time the sidechain trigger (the other sound) plays.

To examine this effect, in this example, I set up a compressor on the track called SYNTH:

1. I enabled the Sidechain section by using the toggle to the right button (Figure 7.19...

Summary

In this chapter, we had a look at some of the awesome new and updated effect devices that arrived with the Live 11 software update to spark our creativity and discover new possibilities.

We also explored the differences between using effects inserted directly onto tracks in serial or using effects with Return Tracks for parallel processing, which is super important for a more efficient mixing workflow, as well as managing our CPU usage.

Last but not least, we also had a look at what sidechaining is and how we can use this technique with various devices to achieve different effects, as well as learning how to have more control over our sidechaining by using a ghost sidechain track.

In the next chapter, we will further explore parallel processing on a track basis and learn more interesting and complex techniques by discovering Racks and the new improvements to them that Live 11 brought.