Adding live beats in ableton

[New mixer]

Hey BTF,

I wanted to know if there was any way I could add beats live when listening to a song in ableton. Such as bass kicks when I play the song in ableton. I know I can copy and paste beats manually but would like to learn a quicker way of dropping beats down when Im just listening. Ex. clicking the space bar every 4th beat to add a bass kick while listening to the song. If there are any videos on how to do that, that would be greatly appreciated too!

Thanks!

 

[vikrambahogun]

I know Logic Pro has its own built in keyboard function in which you can use your keyboard on the laptop or desktop as the midi keyboard. I'm pretty sure Ableton does as well. Me and my buddy were on the road working on music and we were working on Ableton and he popped up a built in midi keyboard inside Ableton. You'd have to research on how to bring it up. There's definetly a shortcut. If not, you'd have to manually drag and drop your loops from the built in library and arrange it yourself. If you prefer to use physical keys like me, invest in a midi keyboard or a midi drumpad. I have both in my studio. They're not expensive. Midi keyboards works for both keys and drums. You don't have to click anything every 4 beats. Just drag it once and loop it manually every 4,8,16 beats or however you choose to. Good luck.

 

[mithu]

Yes you can.
There's two ways: If you're creating your own kick (SA's Kick, PB's BigKick, GVR Kick, etc), just add MIDI track and insert the plugin. You're keyboard will act as a MIDI controller. Just mess around with it.
If you're sampling a kick or whatever, then create MIDI track and insert the Drum Rack (you can use a preset or blank one).

Just drag and drop the sample into one of the notes. You're keyboard will act as a MIDI controller.

 

[New mixer]

this is awesome man thanks! now sometimes a lot of my beats are off by a millisecond or so. Do i need to individually move each kick so its lined up with the beat of the song or is there a quick way to line them up or somehow save a 4 to 8 beat loop and keep reusing that?

 

[mithu]

You can manually line them up.
Or quantize them.

You can set it up that as you're recording it'll align it to the grid

 

[New mixer]

Thanks or your help makes so much more sense!
I also have a question about either removing an instrumental or at least lowering it down so you here the vocals more (at least 50% over the instrumental in the background). Do i need a specific plugin for this or can i do it with the stock ableton 9 that i have?
Thanks again

 

[mithu]

its not simple as a plugin or doing this or that.
For instrumentals: find them online.
Trying to remove vocals form a song is near impossible, you could try to remove all the center from a track and just leave you with the stereo (that also means losing a lot of the instruments that are placed in the center.

You can do everything with stock ableton plugins. I would recommend actually using them and learning the concepts behind them. Learn what each type of plugin does.