[MUSIC]
Let's record some audio into Ableton via a microphone.
So each of us has access to different types of technology,
different resources, and I'm going to show you a few ways to record audio into Live.
I'm going to be using an audio interface here,
which is this microphone is connected through it via an XLR cable.
Also, you might be using the internal microphone on your computer,
which is also a really great way to get audio into a session,
especially if you don't have access to this stuff.
So let's start by setting up
this interface and see the different options for routing audio into the software.
So I'm going to start by navigating up here to the preferences menu,
and then I want to be on the Audio tab here on the left-hand side.
So you can see this is where we're going to dictate
the audio input device and the audio output device.
So the input is dictating where audio is coming in.
In this case, I want it to be this microphone.
Conversely, the output device is where is audio coming out from,
and in this instance,
it's my interface going to my headphones.
I'm going to click on this drop-down menu for the audio input device.
I'm going to choose this Duet USB,
that's the name of my interface.
It's an interface from a company called Apogee.
Then, same thing here for the audio output device,
I'm going to choose the Duet USB here as well.
So I've got audio coming in through this microphone into this interface,
and then out through to my headphones here.
If I wanted to use the internal microphone on my computer,
I would just choose built-in microphone here for the input,
and for the output, I would choose built-in output here,
and you're going to have an eighth-inch output on your computer somewhere.
When you're doing that,
make sure that you have your headphones on so you don't create feedback
of the microphone and the speakers being pointed at each other.
So that's really something important to
remember when you're using the internal microphone,
make sure your headphones are plugged in.
Let's travel down the preferences menu to this latency section.
So we have an opportunity to change the buffer size here,
which will then directly reflect how much latency we're experiencing,
and latency is the amount of time that it takes
this audio to go from the microphone into the interface,
to the computer, and then back out to my headphones.
So when you're recording,
you want that to be a small amount of time.
You want to hear it in real time because recording your voice or
any instrument with latency is really difficult to do.
Generally speaking, anything around 13-15 milliseconds is fine.
Anything above that, the human ear is going to
perceive that as being slightly delayed or slightly latent.
So we want to make sure that this number down here,
this overall latency number is around 13-15 or lower.
We're going to adjust that number by switching the buffer size here.
So the lower this number,
the harder your computer has to work.
Conversely, the higher the number,
the less taxing it is on your computer,
but the longer that journey from
microphone-interface-computer and back out is going to take.
So you have to take into consideration how powerful
your computer is and find a number that works for you.
So here, if I'm at 2,048 samples,
you can see I'm at 88.1 milliseconds of latency,
which is a whole bunch of latency,
and if I travel back down here to 128 samples,
I'm back to 8.15 milliseconds,
which is optimal for recording.
You can think of a buffer size like a YouTube video.
The longer you're buffering,
the longer it takes for that video content to reach you,
but it's a little less taxing on your computer,
and if you don't have much of a buffer,
you are going to get it faster,
but you might see some glitching.
The same thing happens with audio,
you're going to hear digital distortion,
and that's a cue that's saying your computer is working a little too hard,
and you can manage the buffer size that way.
So I've got my interface ready to go.
The input and the output device are selected properly,
and I've got an optimal latency setting.
So let's start recording some audio into Ableton.
I've got an audio track over here,
and you can see already that the microphone,
I'm just speaking into the microphone,
and there's a signal coming into the track,
it's just grayed out.
So we have different monitoring options depending on what you want to do,
and first of all,
we want to select the proper input.
If you're not seeing any signal in there,
it's probably because you have your microphone
plugged into a different input on your interface.
So you need to go take a look.
I've got mine plugged into Input 1 on my interface.
So right here, where it says audio from,
where are we receiving audio from?
So this first option is the external interface,
which is what I'm using right now,
and then as I pull this drop-down menu,
I have Input 1 or Input 2.
You can even see that I'm receiving signal on Input 1,
this is metering right here.
That's the input I've got my microphone plugged into.
So I have it selected and there is signal coming through.
I can arm the track down here by selecting the Record icon,
just like we did for a MIDI track.
But when this is set to monitoring off,
we're not hearing anything.
When I set it to auto,
there's the sound of my voice.
So I've got audio coming into this first audio track here.
I'm hearing it just fine.
So if I unarm the track with auto selected,
I'm not hearing it.
So when things are on auto or when the monitoring option is auto,
I'm only going to hear what's coming through the track when the track is armed.
So the next order of business is to make sure that I have my input set properly.
You want to be close to 0 without going over,
and 0 being the top of this fader,
and if we cross that threshold,
we're doing something which is referred to as clipping or distorting.
So you want to sing at
your loudest dynamic level or play at whatever your loudest volume is going to be,
and get close to that threshold without crossing it.
So I've got my meter here.
I can turn this up. Check, check,
oh, I've hit the red, so I back it off.
Check, check, check, check, check.
Check, check, check, check, check, check.
Sounds pretty good to me.
So I've got a chord progression, a kick drum,
and some hi-hats ready to go,
and I'm going to record into one of these clips in Session View.
So this works exactly as it does with the MIDI clip.
When I press Record here,
on the next downbeat, it's going to start recording,
and then when I press the icon again,
conversely, it will begin to loop right on that next downbeat.
So I'm going to play these clips and hum something to myself,
and when I've found something that I like,
I'm going to record it into a clip here.
[MUSIC]
So I clipped it pretty quickly,
you might have empty space at the beginning or end.
You can just move the start and stop markers of the clip,
like we did with MIDI as well.
Here is my piece of audio directly recorded into a clip in Session View.
So how about I record another one and then we'll
see how this would work as we continue to develop ideas?
[MUSIC]
Back to the first one here.
[MUSIC] This is a really great way
to get your ideas sort of,
just out of your head and into the session,
into the clash, so that we can use it later on.
Next thing, I'm just going to show you how to do this exact same thing
by recording it directly into the arrangements.
So I'm going to press "Tab" and head over to the arrangement.
I have my track armed.
I'm going to just set my cursor wherever I want it to be,
and when I hit Record here,
just like we did in moving from Session View to Arrangement,
this time I'm just recording directly into the arrangement.
I'm going to hit "Record", and I'm recording.
[MUSIC]
So on and so forth.
You could just keep going the entire time,
do one take, do as many takes as you want here.
So I've recorded audio both into the Arrangement View and into the Session View here,
and they should be moving you along in the right direction.
[MUSIC]