Raw Ableton Notes

  • Upper Left Buttons
    • 3x vertical = Session View
    • 3x horizontal = Arrangement View (logic style)
    • Switch between using TAB
  • Interface Zoom: CMD + + and CMD + -
  • Loop Toggle: CMD + L
  • Draw Mode Toggle (Pencil in upper right): B
  • Key map for custom hotkeys: CMD+K
  • Show/Hide Info View: CMD+OPT+L
  • Plugins must be scanned in settings - by default 3rd party plugins were all off
  • To solo a track, select and press S
  • Zoom to selection: Select an area in the arrangement area (term right?) and press Z. To zoom back out to previous level, use X.
    • Zoom to clip/region: Click the top, and follow the above using Z and X.
  • U folds/unfolds track (or can use disclosure arrow)
  • OPT + U to fold/unfold all tracks
  • H/W buttons on bottom left optimize zoom height/width zoom
  • double click stop button (or double spacebar) to reset to beginning
  • single click stop (or single spacebar) will start play from insert marker
  • if a clip is selected, play will start at the beginning of the clip
  • speaker cursor allows 'scrubbing' through arrangement
  • SHIFT + SPACE to continue playback from where the bar is (not the insert marker)
  • little arrows pointing right are called locator markers
    • to delete, click on one and press delete key
    • clicking on it will set the insert marker
    • 'launch quantization' sets when clicking a marker or moving the locator starts playing from that point - so if the settings is 1 bar, then playback will wait until the beginning of the next bar to move
  • 'loop brace' is the name of the part that contains the looping to a specified part of the project (in Logic: 'cycle')
    • CMD + L hotkey turns on/off (C in Logic Pro)
    • can make a time selection in the arrangement with click/drag, and use CMD+L to move the loop race there
  • OPT+CMD+I to toggle inputs/outputs
  • OPT+CMD+M to toggle mixer
  • SHIFT+CMD+T to insert new MIDI track
  • SHIFT+TAB to toggle between Clip & Device views.
  • CMD+D in arranger will duplicate track
  • Split Midi Track: CMD + E (CMD + T in logic)
  • Ableton calls 'Gluing' clips ('regions') together consolidating (CMD+J)
  • In Device View, to create an instrument rack, use SHIFT to select multiple plugins. Then press CMD + G.
    • From here, you can map macros on the left to controls on different effects within the instrument rack. The controls linked to a macro have a green dot on them.
  • Audio Effect Racks - channel strips? find out
  • CMD+E when selecting part of audio to edit it (e.g. gain a section) ‌

Drum Rack

  • pad has 16 cells, but can have 128 cells
  • one sample loaded in a cell adds to 'Simpler' (single sample sampler), and creates a 'chain' - sort of a mini mixer channel

MIDI Editor

  • Selecting the preview button will select all notes in that row (similar to the piano keys in Logic Piano Roll view)
  • SHIFT+CMD+U opens quantize section
  • Click a note and press 0 to deactivate it (mute)
  • To change the velocity of a note, hold CMD and drag mouse vertically (notes will show dimmer)
  • CMD+U to quantize in piano roll