808 Bass Tutorials: From Creation to Mix

808 Bass Tutorials: From Creation to Mix

The use of the 808 in pop music has followed an unusual trajectory. When Kanye West released his 808-based album, 808s and Heartbreak in 2008, the sound had a deliberately retro charm. What was state-of-the-art technology in the 80s was brought back as a piece of sonic nostalgia. Since then it has grown into its current status as the go-to bass sound of hip hop’s vanguard, sounding fresh all over again.

Artist Talk: Vessel

Artist Talk: Vessel

“I don’t care about sound or music until I can hear the presence of a personality, of a human character at work.”

Seb Gainsborough aka Vessel is an avant-garde artist who contains multitudes. His music naturally finds itself left of field and is trawling ‘an undocumented hinterland’ that only his Vessel project holds the bearings to navigate.

Ableton Link – the latest platforms, products, and possibilities

Ableton Link – the latest platforms, products, and possibilities

Since its release less than three years ago, Ableton Link has helped make collaboration with electronic instruments simpler. A technology that keeps software applications (and even hardware products) in time over a local network, Link has found its way into all kinds of instruments and creative tools. It’s been exciting to see how artists use it for performance and play – even outside of the music-making domain.

Generate endless musical ideas with Live’s MIDI devices

Generate endless musical ideas with Live’s MIDI devices

We’ve all been there: opening a new Live Set, pondering the blank slate of an empty Session View window, wondering how to begin. With practically infinite options, and perhaps little-to-no music theory knowledge, coming up with fresh chord progressions, basslines or melodies to begin a project with can be a pretty daunting task.

Sidechain Compression: Part 2 – Common and Uncommon Uses

Sidechain Compression: Part 2 – Common and Uncommon Uses

Now that we’ve learned about sidechain compression and its origins in part 1 of this series, it’s time to get our hands dirty. In this piece, David Abravanel provides some examples of sidechaining applications in Live 10 – from recreating classic pumping house chords to head-spinning experimental trigger networks.

Sidechain Compression: Part 1 - Concepts and History

Sidechain Compression: Part 1 – Concepts and History

From pop to hip-hop to sound design to heavy techno, sidechaining is an essential tool for modern production. Even if you don’t think you know it, you’ve heard it: it’s that pumping sound when the kick drum hits and everything else makes way. In this series, David Abravanel takes us on a journey through the history and applications of sidechaining, with some tips to boot.

Welcome back! - Blog feature image

Welcome back!

Hello music lovers! I hope your musical journey is going well and you find inspiration and interesting things to add to your productions. As you can see after a long time away I decided to relaunch Audio Tutorial Videos as I believe it is a great tool for all music producers and a great help in finding technical and educational content in the form of tutorial videos.

Sidechain Functionality with 3rd Party Plugins in Ableton Live thumb

Sidechain Functionality with 3rd Party Plugins in Ableton Live

Ableton Live 8 has native sidechaining that only works with the native Compressor plugin or any other possible Max4Live devices. Steinberg’s VST3 specifications include functionality for VST3 compatible plugins to allow external sidechain signals but Live does not yet support the VST3 protocol. In this tutorial I will explain how to set up a third party sidechain enabled VST plugin in Ableton Live and I will present two example scenarios.

Multimixing - thumb

Multimixing

It’s true that long mixing sessions can create a degree of ear fatigue. That can lead to a number of undesirable things like making bad mixing decisions. It’s always a …

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