> the beginner’s guide to live
Instruments
be enhanced through the application of Auto
Filter, Phaser, Amp, Cabinet, Reverb and Auto
Pan (for tremolo) from Live’s Audio Effects.
Check out the EP Faceplant preset for an
example of how these effects can be used in
conjunction with Electric in the Instrument
Effects rack to create a classic vintage sound.
Electric is included with Live Suite, and is £59
for Standard and Intro users.
EXTERNAL INSTRUMENT
External Instrument makes integrating
MIDI hardware instruments into your Live
sessions a piece of cake. With your
hardware instrument hooked up to your
Mac or PC’s audio and MIDI interfaces
using the usual cables, add External
Instrument to a
MIDI track, select
the port you want
to send MIDI data
from and the audio
input the hardware
is connected to,
and you’re ready
to rock! Live even
adjusts for latency,
making it a truly
viable way to make
your old-school kit
useful again.
IMPULSE
A drum sampler with complex modulation
capabilities, Impulse is a quick and fun
alternative to the considerably more
powerful (but very different) Drum Rack.
It features eight slots onto which samples
can be dragged from the Browser or
the arrangement, which are triggered
on consecutive white notes from C3 up.
Each sample slot has its own individual
set of parameters, many of which can be
modulated via velocity or randomised.
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The parameters are divided into four
sections, the first of which contains the Start,
Transpose and Stretch controls. Using these,
you can adjust the start point of the sample,
change its pitch, and even timestretch it with
a choice of two algorithms.
The second section is a basic saturator
with on/off and Drive controls. The third
section, a resonant filter, features low-pass,
high-pass and band-pass modes, each with a
choice of slopes, plus a notch mode.
Finally, the Pan and Volume section
includes those eponymous controls plus a
Decay time setting with two modes: Trigger
has the sample beginning to decay with the
note-on message, while Gate starts to decay
upon receiving a note-off message. At the
right-hand side of the fourth panel are global
controls for Volume, Time (controlling both
Decay and Stretch) and Transpose.
INSTRUMENT RACK
This endlessly useful container device
enables composite instruments to be
constructed by layering up parallel device
chains. For example, you could build your
own ‘hybrid’ synth, with an Operator
instrument providing the sub-bass and an
instance of Analog generating a wider mid
sound on top of it, both triggered by the
same MIDI part.
Audio effects also work in Instrument
Racks, and you can use VST/AU plugins, too.
Key and velocity splits can be set up for each
chain, and you can control which chains are
playing directly using the blue Chain range
bar and Chain Selector parameter. Like the
Effect Rack, the Instrument Rack features
eight Macro knobs, each of which can be
freely assigned to multiple parameters.
OPERATOR
Live’s fabulous frequency modulation (FM)
synth might not have the specs of its third-
party plugin rivals, but it’s well designed and
can produce some strong sounds, especially
in the bass and lead departments.
FM synthesis creates particularly
characteristic timbres by modulating the
pitch of one oscillator (known in FM jargon as
an ‘operator’) with the amplitude of another.
While most modern soft synths have a
modulation matrix that allows the user to set
up new routings on the fly, Operator’s design
is a throwback to a breakthrough hardware
FM synth, the Yamaha DX7. The fixed
approach employed by the DX7 and Operator
presents a choice of fixed ‘algorithms’ that
determine the modulation routing, and while