Area of Expertise

My area of expertise is switch two tracks or mixing two tracks to give that dj mixing feeling. I used my area of expertise in my final project by mixing a two-step garage track into a bassline track and also cut it between the both tracks.

At the bottom of the screen grab you can see the arrow that you can move a cross from left to right to switch from track to track like a dj mixing desk. I used this on the last part of my piece of performance from a two-step garage looped sample to my bassline track.

Final Project, Ableton Live Showcase

Day of live showcase

Today was the final project for the music tech level 3. To prove I did the course to get the qualification  I needed to perform my piece of music infront of a live audience. At first i was very nervous as i have never performed infront of an audience. The first thing we had to do is arrive at BSS(Beaumont street studio) for 12:00pm  to decide on the teams slots for the day; I was the fourth slot for the day.

After deciding on the slots for the day, I decided to go through my performance and tidy up the mistakes I perviously made and also made sure my arrangement was in the right places and then rehearsed through my project a couple of times.

At 12:30pm it was time to take the equipment to the Lawrence Batley Theatre where the ableton live showcase was happening.  We all helped to load the equipment into one of Beaumont street staff’s car, then unloaded it at the theatre. We then set the equipment in the basement where we were going to perform.

Final preparation for showcase

At 6:00pm it was time for each of us to have a quick run throught of our piece to make sure the right keys were assigned to the the right keys. I was one of the last people to have a run through to makesure my timing was right.  We decide I should use Rob’s keyboard as it was the best one there and working , so i had to assign all my keys into his keyboard by going through the midi control, but the keyboard looked a bit  tricky to use as it had a lot of buttons and cross faders in certain places, that made me nervous again but with a quick guildence through from tutor Graham, it calmed my nerves down a touch.

showcase

After the run through of all the sets, it was time to let the audience in and that when the nerves broke back in but before we all performed we had a class quick talk throught, were it boosted abit of my confidence to just go and do my best.

Overall example of project

Overall example of project, is that i want to create a two-step garage and grime track that would mix into a bassline track, to give the audience an underground music feeling.

I did my best, but missed out certain effects to my project,  but the audience never really noticed  as they loved my scarface introduction to my two-step garage  mixed into a bassline beat to give that live dj mixing set feel. I realy liked the turn out and everybody did their best and also thanks to the tutor Graham Booth  for teaching me abbleton live and I really enjoyed the course by learning and listening  to the different types of music we was all into.

Clip View in Ableton

The clip view give you the information of the name of the clip I have using and the colour it is highlighted in.

In the clip view you have a section called the sample, where you can add different variation , wraping and loop in the clip view window, it also give you the option to transpose/pitch bend, volume, pan, link and unlink in the evevople section.

In the clip view there is a launch section where you can launch certain parts of your project by using the follow action or tigger with the mouse. I’ve decided to trigger mine with the mouse. Below in the clip view for my bass sample, I played the bass again in through midi to give it a better bass pattern. I also put the loop button on and had the link button turn on in the envelopes with a mixer and track volume on. In launch mode I set it to trigger and kept the quantization at ‘global’. I also turned the pitch half way, and kept the volume the same. The diagram below shows you where to find the clip view, launch , notes and envelopes section that i have used in my track.

Wraping a sample in Ableton

In my project I decided to use a sample and wrap it, so it could play in sync with other sounds in my track.

The first thing I have to do is find the first kick drum and turn the loop button on, then set the loop start position to 1 and the end point position to 2 on the section I want to loop. This will give me a 1 bar loop that can fall in to time with all the other audio variations that I have in my project and also when I warp a track it wraps to the master tempo, so all the audio plays at the same speed.

In my screen grab it shows you that I have used the warp mode button and my ‘in’ point at 1 (begining of the loop) and my ‘out’ point at 2 (end of loop) to give me the sample i wanted from begining to end. It also shows you that i have the loop button on, to loop my sample over and over , so when i trigger the section it is in, it plays it automatically.

Using a filter effects within my Bongo sample

In my track i want to use a bongo sample to give the track a little more feeling to it, when I loaded the sample into to the session view, it sound a bit hard and overpowering my other sounds, so i decided to put a processor/filter on the sound of the bongo to give it a better sound.

Using a Compressor and EQ to create a deep Bassline

In my grime cross bassline project I used a compressor and two EQ three on the bass to create a deep Bassline, to give that underground bassline feeling to my track, this means I needed to change certain switches in the compressor

(see arrows)

In the compressor I check the envelope from a peak in the second Bass to an opto to give a different feeling to the Bass from the first Bassline that I am using for my main bass.

Also in the compressor i changed the attack and the release switches, I changed the attack switch to 3.16ms and the Release to 70.6ms and i also changed the model to FB to give the of the bass a pushing back and fort feeling as this bass would be underneath my main bass.

I also used two EQ three with the compressor

I used the EQ to give a more heavy sound to my bass, the way i did this is that i changed the gain low and the hi grain switch. the first EQ I used i changed the low grain to 6.00db and the mid grain to -6.70db, I also changed the hi and low freq to give that pan feeling from speaker to speaker.

The next EQ I changed all the gain different from the first one, this gave me a tumbing sound as i changed the low and hi freq to 670hz and 250khz

Using Simpler to create a Bassline

The first step i had to so to sample a bassline from a tune, the reason why because it sounded flat tinny, the they want to put into midi so i could play my own pattern in. To do this I loaded it up into simpler, where i can change the loop, length and frequency

1. The loop buttom change the size by percenge to an 100%  to give you the whole sample. I change it to 76.2% this let it miss out the begining point of the loop and give me the middle part of the loop.

2. the lenght plays from the begining to the end  this show as an 100% in the sample window  by the arrow in the dark green section of the wave form.

3. The frequency is where i used the filter on and the type to LP12 to give it that deep bass and get rid of the tinny sound before in the sample , i then put the frequency contral half way .

Planining my project

overall Idea for my project

For my overall idea for my final project, I would like to produce a underground grime cross Bassline track. For my final proformance I would like to do a pre organised DJ set with different loop,sample,vocal and drum patten, this will be pre-arranged in ableton in to scene’s

The first step I need to is find the right right R&B drum sample, that is in wave so i can crop the drum sample and take the piece i need and make three different arrangement of it by crop the wave form, like below. Also in my project I would like to use a two-step garage loop so I can mix it with the cross fader on the midi keyboard into one of my friend bassline track called I’m so restless by 1born production and alongside a grime track made out of a bassline sample that i will play again into a midi keyboard, I will also use different other sample that will fit in to the track and put whole thiing into scene that will fit.