One of the easiest ways to give your music a bit of extra kick is to add effects. Often a bit of reverb here or a dab of delay there can breathe new life into a track that's in danger of flatlining.
However, now that effects are built into pretty much all audio and midi sequencers, there is a danger that you can fall in to the trap of using effects in less creative ways than maybe you should. For example, it is easy to end up adding a reverb effect across a whole channel when really what you need is to introduce a small amount of the effect at a certain point in the mix.
Most modern sequencers allow you to attach automation data to effects plug-ins. This automation data allows you to change how an effect is applied to a track as the track plays. In fact, when you learn how to use it to its best advantage, automation can become an essential mixing tool. Using automation, you can set up effects so that they only poke their way into your track when they are needed and run and hide when they are not, allowing you to target specific sequences for manipulation.
Here, we are going to look at how to use automation in Ableton's Live 4 sequencer. The whole premise of Live is that it is a sequencer geared around performance, and it certainly lives up to it is name when it comes to adding automation to effects plug-ins. Live makes it easy to add automation because not only can you record changes to plug-ins in real time, but you can also edit the data in minute detail after it has been recorded.
In this section of our Creative Special, we will show you how to get to grips with Live's recording and editing features.
More creative use of effectsThe great irony of using effects in music is that they are often called into play to make recordings sound more natural. For example, you often add some digital reverb to a vocal to give it a bit of breathing space and make it sound more organic.
However, effects can also be used creatively, and even if you are not interested in your music sounding like a hybrid of early Pink Floyd and Gong albums, you can still call effects into play to add a bit of spice to your sound.
For example, you could use some radical EQ settings to apply an extreme transistor radio sound to a solo guitar playing an intro lick to your song. Not only will this separate it from the main track, but it will also create more punch when the bass and drums kick in.
To create some really wild sounds, try chaining multiple effects together. As different effects work on different frequencies and elements of the sound, the results can be pretty unexpected.
Live 4 offers very flexible effects routing that enables you to create interesting effects chains. You can insert any effect on any track, and you can have a maximum of four send buses running at any one time. These buses appear in the Arranger and Session windows, and have their own send controls. This means you can use them to send effects to other effects or even send an effect back on itself.
Playing around with the routing of effects in this way can produce some pretty unique sounds and also helps you understand exactly how the Live 4 signal chain works. However, if you do start routing effects back on themselves, be careful not to create horrible amounts of feedback.
Effects routingDon't forget that how you route your effects can be incredibly important to the sound they end up creating. For example, if you route a distortion plug-in into a phaser plug-in, the phaser will have a more prominent effect than if you route them the other way around. If you are not achieving the sound you are after, you may find that changing the running order of the plug-ins can help you get closer to the result you had in mind.
Author: Niall Magennis
Automating effects in Ableton Live 4