Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

Free Ableton Live Pack by Dennis DeSantis

Eariler this year, Computer Music magazine had a special issue on Ableton Live 6 with an exclusive Live Pack designed by Dennis DeSantis. The issue sold out making the Live Pack difficult to come by. Good news, Ableton has made the Live Pack available for free on their web site, get it here - The Dennis DeSantis Live Pack.

The pack contains "a number of pads, electronic percussion samples and effects, all saved in easy-to-use Instrument and Effect Racks. There's also an instructional demo set that showcases many of these racks."

On a side note, Ableton has since hired DeSantis as their  "Head of Documentation"

M-Audio Announces Vista Compatibility for 2nd Quarter 2007

Article update: M-audio has released a ton of 32-bit drivers for their products - see this post.

I just received a press release indicating M-Audio will offer drivers for most of their products for Vista by the end of this quarter.

"Los Angeles, CA, May 30, 2007—M-Audio®, a leading provider of creative tools for computer-centric musicians, is proud to announce the release of Microsoft Vista drivers for many of the company’s most popular products.

M-Audio currently expects to release 32-bit Vista drivers for all of the following models during the second quarter of 2007: all FireWire products; all currently selling USB MIDI keyboards; Fast Track™ USB, Fast Track Pro, JamLab™, MobilePre™ USB, Black Box™ and Transit® USB interfaces; Conectiv™ and Xponent™ DJ interfaces; and the Revolution™ 5.1 PCI card."

Related links:

• Other vista related articles in this blog
• Will your M-Audio  Axiom work with Windows Vista?
• M-Audio Vista Drivers Page

Tutorial: How to use the Axiom 25 with Ableton Live and with Live's Impulse Drum Sampler

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Ableton provides a free Live Pack containing three custom programs for M-Audio Axiom series keyboards. These programs contain mappings that allow you to control Live's transport, switch scenes, launch scenes, control volume, control instrument/effects parameters, trigger clips, and play impulse sounds with the Axioms drum pads.

This article offers tips for setup and usage and goes beyond the information in the Ableton Lesson by offering illustrations and examples. The article is specific to the Axiom 25 but owners of other Axiom 49 or 61 will also find this information helpful.

The article is rather long, read on, and feel free to comment with your own tips...

HUMAN LEAGUE - LOVE ACTION (Live At The Dome)

I  ran across this  video of Love Action by the Human League live (looks like  2003).  I love  the mix with Phil Oakey's  vocals way out front.

Ableton Upgrade Discounts for Live 1-5 Full Version Users and Instruments

Through June 3rd 2007 Ableton is offering upgrade discounts on Ableton Live and instrument bundles. More here http://www.ableton.com/upgrade

Checkout Propellerhead Software's YouTube Channel

Propellerhead software (makers of Reason and ReCycle) has a YouTube channel. The channel has some interesting videos of their software in use - http://www.youtube.com/PropellerheadSW .

Join Me In Voting for Blake Lewis - Lets Put An Ableton Beatboxer on the Map

Article Update: Obviously the show is over and Blake got 2nd. If you found this article, you might be interested in knowing the Blake uses a program called Ableton Live. This program is extremely popular for composing, producing, as a recording studio, mixing, mashups,  djing, and performing live. One of the key reasons so many use it is that you can ONE program to both create music and perform Live! It's also extremely popular for laptop use.

This blog has a "Ableton Live" category dedicated to helping people work with the program. If you are interested in buying this program or upgrading from an older version to the current version, you can buy this program at a discount using these links: Ableton Live 6 Music Software | Ableton Live 6 Upgrade from Version 5 . Check out www.ableton.com for more info on the product.

I just watched the final of Idol. Still few hours to vote. I'm voting for Blake Lewis. Lets rally and get some more votes for a contemporary artist by calling:

866-436-5705

Here why I say so:

1. He's fresh and contemporary - about time we had an idol winner who's doing something new.
2. He's not just an singer.  He's also a producer, arranger, and performer. It would be really refreshing to see someone like this win Idol.
3. This is not some sort of short-cut for him but more of a "break" into the big time. He was performing before Idol (check out this video).
4. It will be good publicity for the electronic music/DJ/Beatbxing community if he wins.
5. He uses Ableton Live - I use Ableton Live :^)
6. In the final, I thought he did a better job on 2/3 songs. His performance of the song "This Is My Now'' (picked by viewers in an online "American Idol'' songwriting contest) was REALLY not his style and gave an advantage to Jordan Sparks. If the winner of the songwriting contest would have been a non "Celine Dionesque" song, Blake would have had a chance at winning the 3rd song as well.
7. Overall, he's been solid as a singer and performer week after week and has not been afraid to take risks.

Hey Live Lite Users - Ableton Has Announced an Upgrade Path for ALL Lite Versions

If you have got Ableton Live bundled with another product, now is your chance to upgrade to the full version. In the past, upgrade paths were limited. Now Ableton is allowing upgrades from all bundled packages which include M-Audio, Digidesign, Korg, Line 6, E-MU, Focusrite, Novation, Tascam, Allen & Heath, Behringer and TC Electronic.

By upgrading to the full version of Live 6 you'll get:

• Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, scenes, sends and returns
• Unlimited instances of audio and MIDI effects, VST and AU plug-ins
• Unlimited number of Clip Envelopes
• High-definition multitrack recording (32-bit, 192kHz)
• Full ReWire (slave and master), ASIO and Core Audio support
• Support for multiple compressed audio formats (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC)
• The Essential Instruments Collection, a multi-GB sample library

...and much more.

The upgrade price is USD 419/EUR 379.

Visit this link to upgrade http://www.ableton.com/ll2f.

Torq News - Software Update and New Video Tutorials

First I want to mention that M-Audio has released the Torq 1.0.4 update for Mac 10.4.9 and Windows XP SP2.  Grab it here http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers.

Second, they have also created a set of free online video tutorials for Torq on their M-Audio University.

Espionage and Other Free Presets for Ableton Live 6 by The Covert Operators

Looking for some free presets for Ableton Live 6? Checkout the Covert Operators download page at http://www.thecovertoperators.org/archives/category/downloads/.

The newest download they offer is Espionage - a collection of sounds from from their past and future commercial projects. Presets include select sounds from SoundWrecks, Surgical Tools Vol1, and previews from the upcoming The Muses: Covert Midi Effects, The Muses: Covert Audio Effects, and Constructs.

Note: Live 6.0.3 or higher is required to use this pack. The pack is not compatible with older versions of Live.