This is probably the shortcut you will use the most, and if you werent aware of it, welcome to the first day of the rest of your life! Any guidance is much appreciated. You won't be able to do this directly in Live, but there are apps that let you map keystrokes to MIDI notes or other keystrokes. This is one of a handful of shortcuts that wont work if youre using your computer keyboard as a MIDI keyboard. This is invaluable for quickly slicing and re-arranging audio and MIDI clips. Any audio clips selected will be reversed when you hit R. Be careful here as it takes your computer a little bit of time to create new reversed clips. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. As MGF Audio, Martin has recorded thousands of samples of vintage gear over the years. ableton (yellow) are the keys that already have function in live without modifiers, including z & x (keyboard octave change), c & v (keyboard velocity change), & tab (switch between arrangement & session views). You can switch octaves with Z and X, and change velocity with C and V. As previously stated, when you use the computer keyboard for generating MIDI notes, you sacrifice the ability to use any of the single letter commands in this category. Keymapping is case-sensitive, meaning you can use Shift as a modifier for your own commands. This will enable / disable any selected tracks (by muting them), devices (bypassing them) or clips (deactivating them). A subreddit for users of the music software Ableton Live. For example, you can copy a whole chain of effects from one track and paste them onto another. Once again, you can hold shift to select everything between the current position and the end of the track. For more on this topic, make sure you read Is Using Presets Cheating? for set/delete because of its proximity to those keys. (Interview W/ Neal of RecordingTheMasters), How A Recession Could Affect The Music Industry (In 2022 & Beyond), Tidal vs Spotify (3 Reasons To Switch Over). Keep in mind that Live distinguishes between capitals, so if you want to map some of these default shortcuts without overriding their functions, you can. But it is possible to set up a Sampler, Drum Rack, or any other MIDI instrument to be here instead. So if you only need to adjust clips and notes just a touch, then hold Alt while pressing the arrow keys. Never played with those tools but they might be the best suggestion I've seen, to be honest. Remember that when you do save as you are now working on a new .als file, meaning any subsequent saves will update this new file. Of course, you can turn down knobs on your interface or mixer, but mapping the master volume fader to snap to a specific lower level will be quicker & more consistent every time. When selecting multiple automation points, you can shift them left and right simply by dragging the mouse. In my current circumstance the easiest and most preferred option for me is to use my computer keyboard as a way to play MIDI rather than use an external MIDI keyboard (though I own several) I like the ease that comes with hauling minimal gear (Laptop + Headphones) when I travel, but still have urges to produce. With this command, all clips on all tracks will be duplicated without pasting over any existing sections. Shift + Tab will alternate between showing you your plugin chain and the details for any selected MIDI or audio clips such as MIDI notes or waveforms. MGF Audio is Martin Peploe, a synthesizer and computer music enthusiast from Sydney, Australia. If you only want to play a small section of your arrangement and then stop, just hold Ctrl while you hit Space ( + Space for Mac). If nothing is highlighted, Live will ask you how long the silence should be in bars and beats. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. If youre big on recording, this is probably the most useful Ableton shortcut to know. In piano roll, you can use the arrow keys to move any selected notes. For example,benters draw mode, but you could map Bto turn the metronome on & still preserve the lowercase bfor draw mode. Custom Ableton Live keyboard shortcuts are very useful and you can save them into your default template. While the delete key will obviously remove any selected tracks or clips, if youve clicked on a parameter it will reset it to default. We aim to match authorised UK dealers. If you want to ignore the grid and shift them freely, you can hold Alt to ignore the grid. MIDI controllers are a great way to get hands-on and perform with Ableton Live but what if you dont have access to one? If a sound is already playing, hitting this key will restart it. This is not the case for Save a Copy which will save off a copy but keep you in the same project file. The Dedicated Keyboard for Ableton Live from Editors Keys is a shortcut keyboard which provides you with faster audio editing capabilities. This is extremely useful for experimentation, allowing you to manipulate warped audio on the fly without any menu diving. If you really want to learn Live inside out, checking out what pops up in Info View is a great start, and its very helpful for beginners as well. but it works. With this enabled, the playback head is fixed to the center of the screen as you play back your arrangement. The left and right arrow keys will move any selected clips to the left or right according to the grid size. Groups are one of the best features in Ableton Live. The ability to jump around to the most important sections of your tracks is fantastic & key mapping can make this process even faster. Creating key maps for existing keyboard shortcuts can feel redundant, but for certain shortcuts & uses it makes sense. FL Studio vs Ableton Live. However, I've been thinking of investing in a nice midi keyboard and getting rid of this cheap old Casio I've got. (USB port required.) Each key contains the shortcut text, as well as your keyboard's standard letters for easy typing. The keyboard shortcuts in Ableton Live are as robust as they are useful. Mac and PC Compatible. After sifting through old google posts and struggling to find the right keywords, (I think partially because the words MIDI, Keyboard, Keys, and Notes can all be kind of ambiguous) I read through some guides on Ableton's remapping features which look very neat for FX and other custom hot key shortcuts, and perhaps I missed it in all the reading, but I am under the impression I am trying to do a very basic thing. I also spend time out in the wilderness collecting field recordings, and I try to be very careful about minimizing my carry load. So make sure you turn this off with M before using this shortcut. Which DAW Is Right For You?). If youre a fan of the mighty pencil, you can call upon it easily by pressing B. (Heres The Real Answer), 5 Creative Sound Design Tips To Make You Rethink Effects, Sample-Heavy Approach To Production (Interview With BCee), Out-Of-The-Box Experiments (w/ Kamikaze Space Programme), Is Tape Undergoing A Renaissance? If you're on a mac, Live's default record shortcut requires you to use two hands to reach the fn & f9 keys at the same time. For example, if you want to insert a breakdown between an existing chorus and verse, this is one easy way to do it. As such, you may consider saving your favorites into your default template -this way, every time you load up a new project you have all the keyboard shortcuts you find useful without having to map them each time. Similarly, pressing End will take you to the very end of your arrangement. If you have nothing selected, playback will just work as normal. Heres one thats very handy for quickly building up your tracks structure. If youre a fiend for send FX, then this shortcut will create a new return channel in a pinch. Because there are so many to go through, weve broken them up into categories such as View, Browse, Playback, Record, and more. Each key contains shortcut text for Ableton Live 9 as well as the keyboards standard letter for easy typing. Holding Alt will allow you to nudge MIDI notes forward or backward in time in very small increments, but only if the grid is on. Grouping tracks is similar to using a bus, with all tracks in the group running through the same processing before hitting the master channel. If you're a laptop-based producer working in multiple locations, however, you won't always have one on you. The problem here is I could not figure out how to do that. As of Live 10, multiple MIDI clips can be displayed and edited at once, but only the Warp, Pitch and Volume settings can be changed for multiple selected audio clips. That or just get really comfortable with the Ableton keys layout (which, to be fair, isn't THAT bad--it's just not perfect for my preferences.) You can move all selected notes up and down an octave by holding shift and pressing either the up or down arrows. Before we start, heres my personal list of the 15 most useful Ableton Live 11 shortcuts in no particular order. Professional studio look. The perfect gift idea for a fellow Ableton Live producer (and a practical and stylish addition to your own studio). This also works with Draw Mode (try it!). The Editors Keys wireless slimline keyboard gives you ultra-fast access to all of Ableton Live 9s main program tools, saving you the hassle of dealing with manuals, menus and toolbars by giving you a clear, intuitive layout of keyboard shortcuts; saving you time in the studio. Login to earn Reward Points for sharing! Faster editing means an easier and more productive day-to-day experience for you. The idea of Hot Swap is simple it will temporarily substitute an element in your song with the selected browser item. These can be handy in a pinch on a per-track basis, but my focus today will be on ideas for key maps that are useful in all projects thateffectively expand Live's functionality & keyboard shortcuts. This means you dont need to actually select all tracks with your mouse when using this shortcut, which is very handy. You can nudge note lengths as well by holding Alt with this shortcut. I prefer < & > as my selectors because they look like their function, & ? You can easily enter key mapping mode at any time by pressing cmd (ctrl) + k. The keys you choose are arbitrary, but you'll find certain ones will work better than others for certain purposes. This one will hide the browser on the left hand side, or make it appear if it was already hidden. They perform a variety of functions that are not so easy to categorize, so weve put them all here for you.