Free Ableton Preset Here's my Ableton DrumRack sampling preset for you guys. Hey guys, thought I'd share this with you. It's my default Ableton 9 DrumRack slicing preset, and it will (hopefully) really speed up your workflow if you use it.
Get your groove on with Rory Dow as he taps you through the process of chopping up beats in Ableton Live MPC-style.
The influence of the MPC sampler is hard to measure. It is widely considered to be the instrument of choice for sample slicing and has measurably contributed to shaping entire genres of music, most notably hip-hop, but also drum and bass and to a lesser extent house and techno.
With this in mind we thought it might be fun to make an article on how to recreate MPC slicing techniques in Ableton Live. Live has all the tools you need, so if you’ve ever wondered if you can get that famous groove “in the box” then read on.
Slicing a beat
First of all, let’s start with a drum loop. Here is an example drum loop that I’m going to work with in this tutorial:
A slowish funk loop made in FXpansion’s BFD2 which we’re going to hip-hop-ify!
It helps if your original loop is trimmed to exact bars although not 100% necessary. Import the loop into an audio track in either Session View or Arrangement View then right click on the clip and select “Slice To New MIDI Track”.
Any audio clip can be sliced using Live’s slicing tool.
A dialog box will appear with two options. For now, we want to leave these at the defaults - “Create one slice per transient” and “Slicing Preset: Built-in”. It is outside of the scope of this article, but I do recommend investigating these two options further as some very powerful options lie within.
For slicing drum loops, the default options in Live’s “Slice to new MIDI track” function are perfect.
When you click the OK button a series of events will take place:
The Drum Rack contains the drum loop, sliced and ready to remix.
Live leaves the entire drum loop in each Drum Rack cell. The slices are created using the cell’s start and end points, which makes tweaking the slices very simple because they aren’t permanently cropped. The use of Drum Racks also allows for editing of filter settings, amp envelopes, pitch envelopes and so on.
Remixing the drum loop
Now the fun begins! With the slices neatly mapped we can start to re-arrange our loop. If you have a 4x4 16 Pad controller such as an Akai MPD or Korg padKontrol then that can help with the authentic feel of playing back the samples in real-time, but it’s by no means necessary. For our audio examples here, I programmed using the mouse.
Get a beat going that you like the sound of. It doesn’t have to be perfect at this stage. I’m generalizing wildly here but most hip hop beats use perhaps 6 or 8 slices from their original drum loop. Here’s how my drum loop looks after remixing:
The remixed loop. Note just how many slices aren’t being used. Simplicity is the key to a good hip-hop groove.
Giving your MIDI that legendary swing
Nailing that MPC swing is down to quantization and groove. We’re going to use Live’s quantization functions to emulate the MPCs now legendary swing. Firstly, if you haven’t already, you’ll need to quantize the MIDI part. With the part selected, hit Command-Shift-U or Control-Shift-U to open the Quantize options.
Live’s Quantize Options.
You’ll probably want to quantize to either 1/16 or 1/32 at a strength of 100%. At this stage your drum loop will probably sound a little robotic, but we’re not done yet. The MIDI is quantized but we haven’t injected the swing yet.
With the Clip Overview open, head to the Clip View Properties. You’ll see the magic word, “Groove”. Next to it is a hot-swap button.
The Clip View gives us access to the groove browser.
Hit the hot-swap button and the Live browser will open in the Grooves folder. You’ll see a folder called “MPC”. Open it up and pick a groove.
Live includes a library of different groove templates including, rather conveniently, MPC grooves.
Some experimentation might be in order to get the right groove. I’ve found that the “MPC 16 Swing” grooves give the most authentic feel, and for our example here, I’ve used “MPC 16 Swing-61.agr”. Double click on your chosen swing preset to apply it to the clip.
Play back the clip and you should immediately notice the difference. You may want to hit the hot-swap button again and try different grooves. Here is our example loop before and after the groove template is applied:
Pre groove :
Post groove :
TIP: If you select Commit you can then print the swing to the MIDI notes in the clip itself. You'll now be able to see exactly how the swing effects the velocity and timing of the sequence.
I also added a little EQ and compression to our loop. The MPC machines have a tendency to colour the sound a little by enhancing the bottom end and squashing the signal a little. Obviously, what sounds good will depend entirely on your original source material.
Final tip
A great deal of hip hop music is written entirely in the MPC. As such basslines and non-drum musical content is often given the same slice-remix-quantize-groove treatment as the drums. As a result, the entire song swings in a wonderful way. Here’s our drum loop with an added guitar which has also been sliced and quantized with the same groove template we used on the drums:
The start of something groovy!
You can hear that the guitar sits perfectly with the drums due to the heavy groove. Add a bassline, get a favourite MC friend to spit a few bars and we might just have the beginnings of something special.
MPCs are amazing instruments that have inspired generations of musicians and whilst there’s no replacement for the real thing, Ableton Live can still recreate that legendary swing and, at least partially, the workflow. So go forth and groove!
Compatibility
MPC 2.7 Desktop Software, MPC X and MPC Live are now supported on macOS Catalina.
Desktop Software
The MPC 2.7 desktop software includes MIDI maps for popular Ableton, Arturia, Korg, M-Audio and Native Instruments controllers.
Downloading the Update
To download the MPC 2.7 Desktop Software Update, log into your Akai Pro user account or through MPC 2.6 when prompted. For instructions on installing the update, please visit our knowledge base article here.
Firmware
This release is for MPC X and MPC Live hardware.
Downloading the Update
To download the 2.7 Firmware Update, navigate to the MPC X or MPC Live product page and click on Downloads to find the Mac and PC download links:
For instructions on installing the update, please visit our knowledge base article here.
New Features
Live Control seamless integration
You can now control Ableton Live using your MPC X or Live. Your MPC X / Live comes pre-mapped to Ableton Live 10.1.2 or later for an instant performance and production setup. For cable-less operation your MPC can control Ableton over a Wi-Fi network. For a more tightly controlled setup connect a USB to ethernet adaptor and ethernet cable between your MPC and computer. MPC provides an unparalleled level of Ableton integration within a standalone device. The MPC’s Live Control mode has been carefully designed to allow you to instantly switch between standalone operation and Live Control mode without ever stopping playback.
Live Control getting started
To enter Live Control mode press MENU and choose LIVE CONTROL, or hold MENU and press Pad 4.
▪ To exit Live Control mode press Main, press MENU and choose an MPC mode, or hold MENU and press any pad to navigate to another mode directly.
TUI Matrix tab
The Matrix tab displays an 8x8 section of Live’s Session View marked in the Live GUI by the colored session ring. Within this layout on MPC, a 4x4 white focus rectangle surrounds the clips mirrored on the MPC pads.
TUI Mixer tab
The Mixer tab provides easy access to Live’s key mixing functions.
MPC Pads
The 16 MPC pads can display either the 16 Live clips within the white display ring, or 16 available Live scenes including the 8 scenes displayed on the touchscreen.
▪ On MPC X, press the XYFX button to change the pad mode from Clip to Scene and back.
When in Scene Launch mode, the pads can be pressed to launch a scene with the current Launch Quantize setting.
MPC Q-Links
The MPC’s Q-Links give you hands on control of Ableton Live’s key parameters, on the MPC X the OLED screens above each Q-Link provide clear visual feedback of the parameter name and value that’s being controlled. Q-Link 1-8 are for controlling track volume, whereas Q-Link 9-16 control the device on the current track at the blue hand position. The blue hand can be found in Ableton Live’s Detail View and can be controlled from MPC in the Device Control tab. On the MPC Live Q-Link banks 1 and 2 control track volume and banks 3 and 4 control the device on the current track at the blue hand position. Pushing and holding the MPC Live Q-Link button brings up the Q-Link overview on the TUI.
TUI Device Control tab
The Device tab controls the device on the current track at the blue hand position (the blue hand can be found in Live’s Detail View).
Control Bar
At the top of the TUI is the Control Bar. You can customise what is displayed in this area by going to the top right of the TUI and tapping the Settings icon to bring up the Settings popup. From the Settings popup go to the Control Bar field and choose from three preset configurations Session, Arrangement or Performance.
The MPC X hardware control surface comes pre-mapped to Ableton Live
Transport Area
Left hand side button functions
Right hand side button functions
Shift button functions
The MPC Live hardware control surface comes pre-mapped to Ableton Live
Control Surface button functions
Ableton Mpc Slicing Present Download Free
Shift and Control Surface buttons
Other New Features
Your MPC X and MPC Live now support USB to Ethernet adaptors. Go to Preferences and then the Ethernet tab to configure your Ethernet connection.
Preferences have improved organisation. WI-FI, Ethernet, Bluetooth tabs are grouped and are now beneath the Info tab.
Stability and reliability
Audio Tracks
Audio Edit
Automation
Browser
Grid View
List Editor
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MIDI Sync
Playback
Plugin Hosting - Effects
Preferences
Programs - Keygroup
Programs - MIDI
▪ Using Track Transpose no longer causes MIDI dropouts
Q-Links
Sample Edit
▪ Changing current Slice very quickly via a Q-Link no longer jams the value
Sample Record
Saving and Loading
Sequence Edit
Song
Step Sequencer
Ableton Mpc Slicing Present Download Video
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December 2020
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