Hi! You helped me the other day and I greatly appreciate how fast you got back to me , I make all kinds of albums every year and these Sonicware synths have changed everything for me ..they are better than all my expensive synths put together...a lot of people think they are toys ...no way....they are incredible and I haven't even touched the surface yet.....thank you for these videos!!! There is no manual and without these I'd be out of luck!!! I own 5 now! Bought them all after I got the Ambient o... immediately.....if your on the fence it is worth every penny and more!
Glad to help 😁 Also glad to hear you're enjoying them so much. There are downloadable manuals on the website by the way though they're probably not as easy to follow as my tutorials, they're more for reference. You can find those here sonicware.jp/pages/online_manuals
I pressed all the buttons this weekend and it’s finally clicking. This device is not a beginner device! There are only eight presets. You’re gonna have to get down and dirty with the sound design. I wasn’t ready! It’s making sense though now.
Just got mine this weekend and loving it, this Video made the difference from tripping over myself learning the unit to enjoying it more :). Thanks Chris.
Love these Sonicware synths ! Your tutorials are great and have helped alot ! Thanx ! 🤘 Really hoping to see Liven come out with one more geared toward heavier Industrial /EBM style sounds !
Yeah that would be interesting. There was a EBM project template on the Lofi-12 XT and I didn't know what that meant at the time tbh, but it's obviously something that's on Sonicware's radar I guess!
Got mine today. Decided to unpack it in a livestream and tried to find things out as I messed around with it. Two hours of fun. What a fun little box, really! But now I will enjoy your tutorial (as I did when I bought the 12xt) so next time I sit down with it I know what I’m doing. Kudos for doing these long videos and really covering a lot of ground. We appreciate you 🫡
@@enochroot9438 Mine arrived yesterday. Had a quick go on it to hear the demo patterns. The Liven's internal speaker has been fine for previous iterations but it's pretty useless for this sound pallet. Good luck with yours.
Mine just arrived minutes ago! I'm going to use your video to learn how to use it, instead of just playing with knobs and never really knowing what I'm doing.
Hope to receive mine tomorrow, I had a great walk with my dog while you teaching me the basics, just like you did with the Megasynthesis :) Can't wait to play around with it, the Groovebox function seems really interesting but I am also curious to see how I can use it with MIDI and control it from a DAW, I've got a feeling this monster can do much more than just Ambient. Keep up the amazing work
Yeah it's well suited to ambient with all the modulation possibilities, shimmer reverb etc but is also capable of some much more traditional synths sounds and aggressive tones. It's really quite versatile 😁👌 Have fun
I've watched this brilliant video multiple times as a means of getting to grips with my Ambient 0. Thank you. Is there any chance you could do a video on the midi connectivity features of the synth. There are features such as 'active sensing' that aren't explained in the manual. Many thanks!
Yes I think it would be worth making a midi setup tutorial video for the whole Liven range when I get some time. Some things are difficult to demonstrate though like the active sensing, other than more Liven gear I don't know if I have other equipment that supports it. There's a good description of how that works here www.soundonsound.com/glossary/active-sensing
@Chris, I know it would be a waste, but can we use he noise track, for an instrument? AKA is the noise track triggered by the keyboard pitch? Then assume ethe envelopes would work? Or it really only useful as a continuous background noise?
Yes it's triggered by the keyboard pitch so you can use it for that no problem. The envelope and LFOs will work too plus you have the option to play chords in poly mode
@@ChrisLodyMusic That's FANTASTIC NEWS! That means we can have 8 alternative sampled instruments.For me that will really take it out of the park 🙂Than you Chris11
Great tutorial Chris. A lot to take in but thanks to the index you provide, it'll be easy to go back and interrogate it as a reference. It looks quite a beast and as a relative beginner, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. But mine should hopefully be in the post for the second batch. Looking forward to some jam videos and seeing what people's workflows are.
Thank you. Don't worry, it's quite easy to get going on if you just mess with some of the presets and templates to begin with. Once you're comfortable with that try recreating some of the sounds I produce in the video, that should help you get to grips with a bit of sound design and you can tweak from there to make them you're own
Thanks for the reply, I am a guitarist and I love producing ambient music and I was looking for a synthesizer to use as a drone to produce soundscapes, after your video I thought about buying the Soniware 0. Do you recommend it or could there be something better? I would also like to control it with a midi guitar...
I do freelance work for Sonicware so I'm biased, but I would recommend it yes. There's a tremendous amount of power in the A0, especially for the price and it does sound lovely. It has some real depth to it but it's also easy to get going on. You'll be able to control it with guitar as long as you have a good guitar to midi setup, I don't know how good those are nowadays, it's not really my area 😄 Be sure to also check out the beginner series that just started on Sonicware's channel: th-cam.com/video/3glp_V_lfTQ/w-d-xo.html I also do some work for Stylophone who are launching a drone synth very soon, I was demoing it at a recent trade show for them as it happens. That's a very different beast but also worth a look: th-cam.com/video/-cl6L4prU6Q/w-d-xo.html
Very nice. I plan to use one as a sampler for modular synths so the noise can handle sequencing from drone recordings. Can you do chords in noise mode? Is it possible to set up so the midi out plays a synth and the sample in handles recording at the same time? Would be cool to sample some sequences too. It will be great as an fx processor as well.
Yeah that would be well worth trying. Yes you can play chords on the Noise track, very useful that. Unfortunately you can't run the sequencer at the same time as recording a sample so that's not possible. It will be useful as an FX box as you say though
I continue to take advantage of your kind assistance while waiting for the SONICWARE ambient 0 I ordered to arrive to ask you if it is possible to import drum sounds to complete the section of a song. I think I understood that ambient 0 does not have drum sounds.
It's not designed to play drums but as long as you don't mind recording over one or more of the samples in the noise layer you can use those for individual drums or drum loops. There's a good video by Sonic Cartography here that shows how to do that th-cam.com/video/p8mQRH4Zzog/w-d-xo.html
Sweet. These guys are clever. Think I’m gonna pick this up. Imagine this + Texture Lab double whammy deluxe model with sampling to SD card. 😊 I wonder if such a dream machine would be good business for them.
Yeah it would be interesting to see them do something like that. They already have the SmplTrek \ Lofi-12 XT platform which has more power and an SD card slot so maybe they could make a multi faceted synth within that 🤞
This video will show you how to do that. The sounds and sequences per layer are saved within the same pattern, so you just need to save your pattern using Func+PTN. I show this in the section starting at 14:22 and in the section starting at 30:06
Perfect video manual as usual. I DON'T understand one thing, or I didn't get it, Bpm! I would like to explore outside ambient borders. But bpm veeery slow always.They don't go 250 as display show. Ok PTR or Global,I've repeated your steps, but even led blinks at no more then 60 65 bpm. Metronome doesn't increase . 250 bpm are very recognizable! Firmware fixes? Thanks
It sounds like you need to watch the section about the Note setting that is contained in the section that starts at 20:30 By default this is set to 1 bar per step so it'll play very slowly
@@ChrisLodyMusic thank you for your prompt help.. actually I found the same solution.solved but I'm still confused about the purpose of this way... anyway Great machine, I experiment use more lo-fi, 4 layer like 4 tracks. Awesome thanks
I've had the LA0 for a couple weeks now. I've RTM and been noodling with it but nothing resembling a jam/tune/piece/(whatever you call an ambient track) has materialised yet. I'm having fun sound designing individual layers but can't get any layers to work with each other (yet). Here's a few criticisms of the box: -Frustrating you can't automate/parameter lock FX/reverb. -The sequencer chunk randomiser is cool but where's simple playback modes (e.g. reverse sequence, ping-pong sequence etc)? -The delay, bitcrush and other FX are cool but this groovebox was crying out for tape degradation effects. -It's annoying how the metronome beep is tied to that layer's note resolution. it would be better if the metronome was fixed at the tempo's quarter notes (this is an issue with all Livens but I've only really noticed it with the Texture Lab and this one).
I lost a basic function: How to copy a preset (as a whole or in layers) to another bank? I tried pushing func+copy, then PTN to choose an empty bank and there func+paste. It doesn‘t do the trick. Can you help me?
The process you describe is correct for a layer. So you do the following: Select a layer you want to copy, press Func+copy, select another layer to paste into (or load another pattern and select a layer), then press func+paste to paste into it If you want to copy a whole pattern make sure you've saved your work with Func+PTN and OK, then press Func+PTN again but this time select a new location before pressing OK. This will save the whole pattern to your new pattern slot
@@ChrisLodyMusic gosh, thank you so much, Chris!!! It works and finally I dare to tweak and go crazy with this amazing instrument. Your help was such a relief!
Thank you 😁 Yes you can. I talk about it briefly when I mention the Line In menu near the end. You can adjust the reverb send amount, shimmer send amount and an on\off for the FX unit
Chris, I am afraid of programming and buttons, do you think I should give this syn a try? I barely got through a Korg NTS1 and pocket operators, I learned to have plenty of fun with Korg and PO.
Well I think if you can follow along with this tutorial you'll be fine. This is perhaps the easiest to learn Liven if you use it like a virtual analog synth without having to program anything using an overlay like on other Livens. If you still have the NTS-1 I made a patch video for that by the way th-cam.com/video/pSlGfrfRvxw/w-d-xo.html
It can yes, that's what the midi in is for. Each track has its own midi channel but there's also an auto midi channel which can control whichever track is currently selected. I go over it in the section that starts at 1:03:58
Hey, amazing thorough vid!!! 💜🙏🏼 Would love to get one of these for use in my synth music :) Been eyeing up this and the stylophone one that’s coming! Going to be doing any coverage on the stylophone one? (Stylophone DS-2)
Thanks very much. As it happens Stylophone is one of the companies I work with, currently just Sonicware and Stylophone to be honest. They plan to send me a CPM DS-2 ahead of release to make videos for their social media channel. I probably won't be able to use it on my channel until it's released to the public though
I have a question about syncing the LA0 with external gear. If I am running a LA0 pattern at 40bpm but want it to sync with a drum machine (say, Volca Drum) beat at 80bpm, what change do I need to make to the sync pulse rate and, on which device do I need to make that change?
So the easiest way to do it would be to allow them to sync to the same tempo but then double the Note values on the tracks on the Liven so it's tracks run at half tempo. Especially well suited to the Ambient 0 as it has extra long Note lengths up to 8 bars per step
Amazing work Chris, especially enjoyed the breakdown between the different structures and what they're suited for. I'm playing with my unit now and curious about one thing: there's 10 voice polyphony, but I'm not sure if the different structures (with their varying numbers of oscillators) affect the polyphony in different ways. Would 5x Atmos2 (2 oscillator) notes = 10 voices of polyphony? Or 10x Atmos1 (1 oscillator) notes? Or is it just total simultaneous notes across all 4 layers regardless of the structures in play?
Thank you 😁 It does affect the polyphony but it's actually capable of 34 oscillators at once so 10 voices polyphony across the 4 tracks is average. There are more details in the manual but that section needs some attention, I'm working on that!
Noted! My pattern Ease which plays in the intro should help in that regard. I want to make some long deep relaxation and meditation videos with it, hopefully it won't be too long before I have time to do that
How many of you have defective battery functions? I’m just curious if mine being defective is a one off or if this is a common issue. This is my 5th liven device so I’m not new to the device. (It is working with psu, thankfully)
That's surprising to hear, I've never seen battery issues and I handle Amazon returns for Sonicware too so I've tested loads of them. If you haven't already, be sure to contact them through the support page on the website
I'd encourage it! There's quite a lot of sample mangling to be done with those 3 LFOs but not many slots for samples. That's the main reason I wanted to show the Sysex procedure in the tutorial, so you can overwrite stuff and know how to put it back later if needed
The procedure for that is the same as saving a pattern, but after pressing Func+PTN, select a different slot form your pattern to be saved in. So using that you can save the same pattern into as many slots as you like
Are you able to explain the max polyphony/oscillator relationship? The manual makes it a bit confusing. I was messing around with mine a bit last night. Set a single drone note (poly) into the sequence, tied 1-16, then some slow pad single notes (poly), but when I went to add some atmos1 to it, none of the notes would sound and based on the manual, I didn't think I was anywhere near using the max 34 oscillators.
Nvm, problem solved and it was user error! Still getting used to the work flow. For anyone who sees this in the future, if you're having trouble getting notes to sound, make sure you don't turn "dice roll" (shift+fx speed) to anything but 100%! 😂
Sorry to leave you hanging, I thought I'd replied to this but something must have gone wrong. Glad you found the solution because I wasn't sure what to recommend from what you were telling me. Hope you're having fun with it 😁
It's a match in spec with the Korg Volca power supply so that's a very easy thing to get hold of and not expensive. It runs off batteries too, personally I have a whole stash of rechargeables to use with this kind of thing
Any power supply that will power a Korg Volca will power the Liven, they have identical voltage requirements and connector types so just grab one of those. I have a couple of the official Korg ones in the studio
They'll be available in most online music stores like Thomann but also Amazon. Usually you could grab a preorder from their website but these have sold very quickly. I think once the September preorder batch has shipped they'll be stocked elsewhere
Yes I can see how they could both be appealing for the same type of music. The biggest difference is perhaps that the Ambient 0 has four layers (tracks) while the Texture Lab has a single track. The Texture Lab can create some incredibly complex and unpredictable sounds so perhaps has a bit more range in terms of variety of output. The Texture Lab has a 4 voice polyphony while the Ambient 0 has 10 voices.
@@ChrisLodyMusic awesome thanks for your response and all of the content you put together for the community! I've been sitting on an ambient 0 preorder for a while that should hopefully ship in the next week or two so I probably stick with that and maybe ask for the texture lab for bday/xmas...they seem like they would pair well together!
I've just received mine and had a play BUT no preset patterns? or scapes just a Square wave on each layer pallette and you go from there. Anyone else got this?
That shouldn't be the case. First make sure you have Bank 1 selected as shown in the video, that's where all the preset patterns and templates are located. If that doesn't work then contact Sonicware support and they should be able to help you sonicware.jp/pages/support
That's so strange. The presets are written to the internal flash memory separately to the firmware so I can only presume there was a mistake made at this point that went unnoticed. They are usually very helpful via email but if you don't hear back either let me know or post on the official Facebook group
Thanks Chris I'll wait to hear back. There is an option to download on their site but I'm not sure which midi to usb lead I should buy? I have very basic pc see. Thanks again.
I work freelance for Sonicware on sound design, beta testing etc so I've had one since there were prototypes available. Some of the preset patterns and templates are mine 😁
Got it yesterday from Moog. Still figuring it out but it’s really nice so far. The plastics aren’t great compared to something like the EP-133 but it’ll do. Tons of modulation and p-locks
I love every instrument y'all/they release. I wish it was $100 or some dollars more in a metal case. Maybe more patterns because the sequencer is really good.
I’d love to have a flying car, but that doesn’t mean it’s possible 😉 Sonicware is a small independent company. They don’t have the massive scale advantages of Roland and Behringer. They do the best they can with pricing. People are spoiled these days.
Personally I like it. I can squeeze Livens and Volcas right up next to each other without the cables getting in the way. I make jams with them on a "synth tray" so it's perfect for that
Understandable but the hardware was designed from a dawless perspective, keeping cost to the minimum with maximum user input, hence all the knobs. Personally I think having din midi and sync over usb was the right decision on their first hardware platform but I also hope usb appears on more of their future devices
Hi! You helped me the other day and I greatly appreciate how fast you got back to me , I make all kinds of albums every year and these Sonicware synths have changed everything for me ..they are better than all my expensive synths put together...a lot of people think they are toys ...no way....they are incredible and I haven't even touched the surface yet.....thank you for these videos!!! There is no manual and without these I'd be out of luck!!! I own 5 now! Bought them all after I got the Ambient o... immediately.....if your on the fence it is worth every penny and more!
Glad to help 😁 Also glad to hear you're enjoying them so much. There are downloadable manuals on the website by the way though they're probably not as easy to follow as my tutorials, they're more for reference. You can find those here sonicware.jp/pages/online_manuals
Mine arrived today so I reckon your watch count will increase massively this weekend 😂
And thanks for this tutorial -amazing and so useful
Ha thank you 😄 Glad to help and I hope you have fun with it
I pressed all the buttons this weekend and it’s finally clicking. This device is not a beginner device! There are only eight presets. You’re gonna have to get down and dirty with the sound design. I wasn’t ready! It’s making sense though now.
Chris is like everyones favourite school teacher
@@jjlacey1970 Thank you 😁
Just got mine this weekend and loving it, this Video made the difference from tripping over myself learning the unit to enjoying it more :). Thanks Chris.
That's nice to hear. Glad you're having fun 😁
Love these Sonicware synths ! Your tutorials are great and have helped alot ! Thanx ! 🤘
Really hoping to see Liven come out with one more geared toward heavier Industrial /EBM style sounds !
Yeah that would be interesting. There was a EBM project template on the Lofi-12 XT and I didn't know what that meant at the time tbh, but it's obviously something that's on Sonicware's radar I guess!
Great idea! would love an industrial oriented box. But im still gonna run this thru my gristlizer!😊
Heck yea! I’ve been dying for some tutorials to check out before my unit arrives! Lody FTW as always!! 👌🏾
Sorry to keep you waiting, crazy schedule right now tbh. Hope you enjoy it, it's a good one 😁👌
@@ChrisLodyMusic Hope it eases up on you man. Thanks for Another quality in-depth tutorial.
Got mine today. Decided to unpack it in a livestream and tried to find things out as I messed around with it. Two hours of fun. What a fun little box, really!
But now I will enjoy your tutorial (as I did when I bought the 12xt) so next time I sit down with it I know what I’m doing.
Kudos for doing these long videos and really covering a lot of ground. We appreciate you 🫡
Thank you, glad to help 😁
Honestly Chris.Your voice doesn’t get on my nerves.Super video.Thankyou.
Ha I bloody hope not, there's a lot of it here 😅 Have fun!
Thank you for this, just picked one up the other day and was pretty lost until watching this, thing is a ton of fun
Great stuff. Looking forward to mine arriving in a few days. I know less than nothing about Ambient so all this is new to me.
Hope you fun with it. I make the usual guide to the controls soon. No overlay on this one so that won't be too tricky
I'm in the same boat so will be returning to this awesome guide video on a regular basis
@@enochroot9438 Mine arrived yesterday. Had a quick go on it to hear the demo patterns. The Liven's internal speaker has been fine for previous iterations but it's pretty useless for this sound pallet. Good luck with yours.
Yes I would recommend at least using headphones with this, the sound is too nice for that tiny mono speaker
Just got mine... ready for the deep dive! Thanks, Chris!
Glad to help, have fun 😁
I also have this synth on pre-order so I'll definitely be using this as well!! Thanks again
Awesome. Hope you have fun with it 😁
Very excited to see this device on the channel. Great video!
Thanks very much, it's a good one 😁👌
Mine just arrived minutes ago! I'm going to use your video to learn how to use it, instead of just playing with knobs and never really knowing what I'm doing.
Ha glad to help, have fun 😄
Your walkthroughs are always strait to the point and very helpful man. Appreciate it, mines on the way!
Thank you, I hope this tutorial helps 😁👍
Thank you for this amazing in-depth tutorial! I just received mine today and am excited to dig in.
@@synthgeek Glad to help, have fun 😁
Wow, looks really tempting.
Glad to hear that, thank you 😁
@@ChrisLodyMusic it's like a little one-stop BOC box. Just add a drum machine.
Yes that's what I'm hoping to do with it soon 😁👌
Again, a fantastic tutorial from you, Chris!
Thanks man. I'm sure this tutorial contains a few things I didn't realise during sound design, like Pad 1 having an output an octave down 😅
Amazing tutorial! Saving for later when I get mine thanks!
Thank you, hope you have fun with it 😁
Hope to receive mine tomorrow, I had a great walk with my dog while you teaching me the basics, just like you did with the Megasynthesis :)
Can't wait to play around with it, the Groovebox function seems really interesting but I am also curious to see how I can use it with MIDI and control it from a DAW, I've got a feeling this monster can do much more than just Ambient.
Keep up the amazing work
Yeah it's well suited to ambient with all the modulation possibilities, shimmer reverb etc but is also capable of some much more traditional synths sounds and aggressive tones. It's really quite versatile 😁👌 Have fun
Outstanding tutorial! Thanks so much. I will be putting this info to good use with mine.
Thank you, hope you have fun with it 😁
I've watched this brilliant video multiple times as a means of getting to grips with my Ambient 0. Thank you. Is there any chance you could do a video on the midi connectivity features of the synth. There are features such as 'active sensing' that aren't explained in the manual. Many thanks!
Yes I think it would be worth making a midi setup tutorial video for the whole Liven range when I get some time. Some things are difficult to demonstrate though like the active sensing, other than more Liven gear I don't know if I have other equipment that supports it. There's a good description of how that works here www.soundonsound.com/glossary/active-sensing
@Chris, I know it would be a waste, but can we use he noise track, for an instrument? AKA is the noise track triggered by the keyboard pitch?
Then assume ethe envelopes would work?
Or it really only useful as a continuous background noise?
Yes it's triggered by the keyboard pitch so you can use it for that no problem. The envelope and LFOs will work too plus you have the option to play chords in poly mode
@@ChrisLodyMusic That's FANTASTIC NEWS! That means we can have 8 alternative sampled instruments.For me that will really take it out of the park 🙂Than you Chris11
Exxelent....thorough walkthru ! Thanks for this ! 💚
Great tutorial Chris. A lot to take in but thanks to the index you provide, it'll be easy to go back and interrogate it as a reference. It looks quite a beast and as a relative beginner, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. But mine should hopefully be in the post for the second batch. Looking forward to some jam videos and seeing what people's workflows are.
Thank you. Don't worry, it's quite easy to get going on if you just mess with some of the presets and templates to begin with. Once you're comfortable with that try recreating some of the sounds I produce in the video, that should help you get to grips with a bit of sound design and you can tweak from there to make them you're own
Thanks for this video. Got mine a week ago and this has helped loads. 🍄🎉
Thanks for the reply, I am a guitarist and I love producing ambient music and I was looking for a synthesizer to use as a drone to produce soundscapes, after your video I thought about buying the Soniware 0. Do you recommend it or could there be something better? I would also like to control it with a midi guitar...
I do freelance work for Sonicware so I'm biased, but I would recommend it yes. There's a tremendous amount of power in the A0, especially for the price and it does sound lovely. It has some real depth to it but it's also easy to get going on. You'll be able to control it with guitar as long as you have a good guitar to midi setup, I don't know how good those are nowadays, it's not really my area 😄 Be sure to also check out the beginner series that just started on Sonicware's channel: th-cam.com/video/3glp_V_lfTQ/w-d-xo.html
I also do some work for Stylophone who are launching a drone synth very soon, I was demoing it at a recent trade show for them as it happens. That's a very different beast but also worth a look: th-cam.com/video/-cl6L4prU6Q/w-d-xo.html
Very nice. I plan to use one as a sampler for modular synths so the noise can handle sequencing from drone recordings. Can you do chords in noise mode? Is it possible to set up so the midi out plays a synth and the sample in handles recording at the same time? Would be cool to sample some sequences too. It will be great as an fx processor as well.
Yeah that would be well worth trying. Yes you can play chords on the Noise track, very useful that. Unfortunately you can't run the sequencer at the same time as recording a sample so that's not possible. It will be useful as an FX box as you say though
I continue to take advantage of your kind assistance while waiting for the SONICWARE ambient 0 I ordered to arrive to ask you if it is possible to import drum sounds to complete the section of a song. I think I understood that ambient 0 does not have drum sounds.
It's not designed to play drums but as long as you don't mind recording over one or more of the samples in the noise layer you can use those for individual drums or drum loops. There's a good video by Sonic Cartography here that shows how to do that th-cam.com/video/p8mQRH4Zzog/w-d-xo.html
Thank you very much 🙏🏻❤️
I love your tutorial, is there any chance you could do one on the Solar 42f? I have one on pre-order and need an in depth tutorial like this one.
Thank you. Sorry but that is a bit out of my price range! 😅 Does look very cool though, hopefully someone like Loopop will make a tutorial for it 🤞
Great demo nice work on this as always
Thanks very much 😁
This is amazing for less than $250/€
Sweet. These guys are clever. Think I’m gonna pick this up. Imagine this + Texture Lab double whammy deluxe model with sampling to SD card. 😊 I wonder if such a dream machine would be good business for them.
Yeah it would be interesting to see them do something like that. They already have the SmplTrek \ Lofi-12 XT platform which has more power and an SD card slot so maybe they could make a multi faceted synth within that 🤞
Can you tell me in which videos I can find how to memorize a chord sequence after making the ambient sound?
This video will show you how to do that. The sounds and sequences per layer are saved within the same pattern, so you just need to save your pattern using Func+PTN. I show this in the section starting at 14:22 and in the section starting at 30:06
Perfect video manual as usual. I DON'T understand one thing, or I didn't get it, Bpm! I would like to explore outside ambient borders. But bpm veeery slow always.They don't go 250 as display show. Ok PTR or Global,I've repeated your steps, but even led blinks at no more then 60 65 bpm. Metronome doesn't increase . 250 bpm are very recognizable! Firmware fixes? Thanks
It sounds like you need to watch the section about the Note setting that is contained in the section that starts at 20:30 By default this is set to 1 bar per step so it'll play very slowly
@@ChrisLodyMusic thank you for your prompt help.. actually I found the same solution.solved but I'm still confused about the purpose of this way... anyway Great machine, I experiment use more lo-fi, 4 layer like 4 tracks. Awesome thanks
Great video. Thanks for doing it. I have a pre-order on one. The one's they got sold out in hours.
Thanks very much. Yes it's been very popular this one, sold very quickly!
I've had the LA0 for a couple weeks now. I've RTM and been noodling with it but nothing resembling a jam/tune/piece/(whatever you call an ambient track) has materialised yet. I'm having fun sound designing individual layers but can't get any layers to work with each other (yet).
Here's a few criticisms of the box:
-Frustrating you can't automate/parameter lock FX/reverb.
-The sequencer chunk randomiser is cool but where's simple playback modes (e.g. reverse sequence, ping-pong sequence etc)?
-The delay, bitcrush and other FX are cool but this groovebox was crying out for tape degradation effects.
-It's annoying how the metronome beep is tied to that layer's note resolution. it would be better if the metronome was fixed at the tempo's quarter notes (this is an issue with all Livens but I've only really noticed it with the Texture Lab and this one).
I lost a basic function:
How to copy a preset (as a whole or in layers) to another bank?
I tried pushing func+copy, then PTN to choose an empty bank and there func+paste. It doesn‘t do the trick.
Can you help me?
The process you describe is correct for a layer. So you do the following:
Select a layer you want to copy, press Func+copy, select another layer to paste into (or load another pattern and select a layer), then press func+paste to paste into it
If you want to copy a whole pattern make sure you've saved your work with Func+PTN and OK, then press Func+PTN again but this time select a new location before pressing OK. This will save the whole pattern to your new pattern slot
@@ChrisLodyMusic gosh, thank you so much, Chris!!! It works and finally I dare to tweak and go crazy with this amazing instrument. Your help was such a relief!
Thank you!! this was a in depth tutorial MUCH NEEDED!! However, Can you use the internal FX for external Gear??
Thank you 😁 Yes you can. I talk about it briefly when I mention the Line In menu near the end. You can adjust the reverb send amount, shimmer send amount and an on\off for the FX unit
Yessss! Me get my ☕️ and 📝
Ha nice 😁
Chris, I am afraid of programming and buttons, do you think I should give this syn a try? I barely got through a Korg NTS1 and pocket operators, I learned to have plenty of fun with Korg and PO.
Well I think if you can follow along with this tutorial you'll be fine. This is perhaps the easiest to learn Liven if you use it like a virtual analog synth without having to program anything using an overlay like on other Livens. If you still have the NTS-1 I made a patch video for that by the way th-cam.com/video/pSlGfrfRvxw/w-d-xo.html
Complete tutorial, but can it work with external midi keyboards?
It can yes, that's what the midi in is for. Each track has its own midi channel but there's also an auto midi channel which can control whichever track is currently selected. I go over it in the section that starts at 1:03:58
Hey, amazing thorough vid!!! 💜🙏🏼
Would love to get one of these for use in my synth music :)
Been eyeing up this and the stylophone one that’s coming!
Going to be doing any coverage on the stylophone one? (Stylophone DS-2)
Thanks very much. As it happens Stylophone is one of the companies I work with, currently just Sonicware and Stylophone to be honest. They plan to send me a CPM DS-2 ahead of release to make videos for their social media channel. I probably won't be able to use it on my channel until it's released to the public though
@@ChrisLodyMusic niiiiice . That’s awesome to hear!! Looking forward to seeing whatever you do with the DS-2!!! Cheers, and thanks for the reply
I have a question about syncing the LA0 with external gear. If I am running a LA0 pattern at 40bpm but want it to sync with a drum machine (say, Volca Drum) beat at 80bpm, what change do I need to make to the sync pulse rate and, on which device do I need to make that change?
So the easiest way to do it would be to allow them to sync to the same tempo but then double the Note values on the tracks on the Liven so it's tracks run at half tempo. Especially well suited to the Ambient 0 as it has extra long Note lengths up to 8 bars per step
Did i miss that in the tutorial. How can i turn down the volume of a layer. For me the noise layer is always a little loud.
It's the knob in the middle labelled Level. Select the Noise layer then tweak that to adjust the volume for that layer
Wonderfull, thx
Amazing work Chris, especially enjoyed the breakdown between the different structures and what they're suited for. I'm playing with my unit now and curious about one thing: there's 10 voice polyphony, but I'm not sure if the different structures (with their varying numbers of oscillators) affect the polyphony in different ways. Would 5x Atmos2 (2 oscillator) notes = 10 voices of polyphony? Or 10x Atmos1 (1 oscillator) notes? Or is it just total simultaneous notes across all 4 layers regardless of the structures in play?
Thank you 😁 It does affect the polyphony but it's actually capable of 34 oscillators at once so 10 voices polyphony across the 4 tracks is average. There are more details in the manual but that section needs some attention, I'm working on that!
@@ChrisLodyMusic Ah that's fantastic Chris, thanks a million for your help!
Great walkthrough. Really interested in this machine but every demo so far seems to lean towards dark ambient. I want to hear something pretty 😊
You can use function and the arrow buttons for octaves.
He also mentions atmos2 can make the sound brighter and shows an example at 44:20.
Noted! My pattern Ease which plays in the intro should help in that regard. I want to make some long deep relaxation and meditation videos with it, hopefully it won't be too long before I have time to do that
How many of you have defective battery functions? I’m just curious if mine being defective is a one off or if this is a common issue. This is my 5th liven device so I’m not new to the device. (It is working with psu, thankfully)
That's surprising to hear, I've never seen battery issues and I handle Amazon returns for Sonicware too so I've tested loads of them. If you haven't already, be sure to contact them through the support page on the website
mine's on the way - I do wonder how long the stock samples are going to last before I get antsy and start sampling into - my guess is.... a week lol
Haha that’s what I’m thinking too! I bet the stock samples are dope but ima need to add a few too
I'd encourage it! There's quite a lot of sample mangling to be done with those 3 LFOs but not many slots for samples. That's the main reason I wanted to show the Sysex procedure in the tutorial, so you can overwrite stuff and know how to put it back later if needed
@@ChrisLodyMusic very helpful
Copying layers seems logical. But what about copying whole patterns? Couldnt find any info about it in manual 🤔
The procedure for that is the same as saving a pattern, but after pressing Func+PTN, select a different slot form your pattern to be saved in. So using that you can save the same pattern into as many slots as you like
Are you able to explain the max polyphony/oscillator relationship? The manual makes it a bit confusing. I was messing around with mine a bit last night. Set a single drone note (poly) into the sequence, tied 1-16, then some slow pad single notes (poly), but when I went to add some atmos1 to it, none of the notes would sound and based on the manual, I didn't think I was anywhere near using the max 34 oscillators.
Nvm, problem solved and it was user error! Still getting used to the work flow. For anyone who sees this in the future, if you're having trouble getting notes to sound, make sure you don't turn "dice roll" (shift+fx speed) to anything but 100%! 😂
Sorry to leave you hanging, I thought I'd replied to this but something must have gone wrong. Glad you found the solution because I wasn't sure what to recommend from what you were telling me. Hope you're having fun with it 😁
@@ChrisLodyMusic with much thanks to your definitive tutorial, I most certainly am! Thanks so much!
Everyone seems to be raving about this synth but correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t it a pain to power up. The adaptor costs a lot of money.
It's a match in spec with the Korg Volca power supply so that's a very easy thing to get hold of and not expensive. It runs off batteries too, personally I have a whole stash of rechargeables to use with this kind of thing
usb-c would've been nice, but fair enough.. Sounds good.
I wish there was a way to sync the lfo’s unless I’m missing something -see you at Bristronica👋
Not on this one, sorry. You can toggle the LFOs to reset on new notes though so at least there's that
@@ChrisLodyMusic thanks -I saw that -maybe a firmware update could include it in the future 👍
great video
Hello,
What power supply do you need?
Any power supply that will power a Korg Volca will power the Liven, they have identical voltage requirements and connector types so just grab one of those. I have a couple of the official Korg ones in the studio
@@ChrisLodyMusic Thank you very much, greetings
Affordable ❤
Where do I get one of these beasts?
They'll be available in most online music stores like Thomann but also Amazon. Usually you could grab a preorder from their website but these have sold very quickly. I think once the September preorder batch has shipped they'll be stocked elsewhere
having trouble deciding between this and the texturelab 😭
Yes I can see how they could both be appealing for the same type of music. The biggest difference is perhaps that the Ambient 0 has four layers (tracks) while the Texture Lab has a single track. The Texture Lab can create some incredibly complex and unpredictable sounds so perhaps has a bit more range in terms of variety of output. The Texture Lab has a 4 voice polyphony while the Ambient 0 has 10 voices.
@@ChrisLodyMusic awesome thanks for your response and all of the content you put together for the community! I've been sitting on an ambient 0 preorder for a while that should hopefully ship in the next week or two so I probably stick with that and maybe ask for the texture lab for bday/xmas...they seem like they would pair well together!
I've just received mine and had a play BUT no preset patterns? or scapes just a Square wave on each layer pallette and you go from there. Anyone else got this?
That shouldn't be the case. First make sure you have Bank 1 selected as shown in the video, that's where all the preset patterns and templates are located. If that doesn't work then contact Sonicware support and they should be able to help you sonicware.jp/pages/support
@ChrisLodyMusic Yeah tried bank 1. In fact all of them. I have sent an email to sonicware. Kinda gutted really.
😢
That's so strange. The presets are written to the internal flash memory separately to the firmware so I can only presume there was a mistake made at this point that went unnoticed. They are usually very helpful via email but if you don't hear back either let me know or post on the official Facebook group
Thanks Chris I'll wait to hear back. There is an option to download on their site but I'm not sure which midi to usb lead I should buy? I have very basic pc see. Thanks again.
I did a factory reset and now everything magically works again! Thanks Chris, I never did hear back from Sonicwave.
how did you get it??? I have to wait til september to receive it in MONTREAL :(
I work freelance for Sonicware on sound design, beta testing etc so I've had one since there were prototypes available. Some of the preset patterns and templates are mine 😁
Moog music in Montreal has them right now. Ordered one today and it shipped same day.
@@glassworkscreative ooooh amazing!
@@glassworkscreative it says though that it will arrive mid september!!! let me know if you got it already :)
Got it yesterday from Moog. Still figuring it out but it’s really nice so far. The plastics aren’t great compared to something like the EP-133 but it’ll do. Tons of modulation and p-locks
Bless you for posting the very first deep dive into this synth. I can't wait to get mine when the 3rd wave ships out next month
@@mazig8 Glad to help, hope you have fun 😁
Bang for buck products!
great tutorial! helped me a lot; thank you!
Glad to help, have fun 😁
comprato oggi!
I love every instrument y'all/they release. I wish it was $100 or some dollars more in a metal case. Maybe more patterns because the sequencer is really good.
Yeah I hope they make a Liven 2 series at some point with some hardware upgrades 🤞
Agreed still love them tho
I’d love to have a flying car, but that doesn’t mean it’s possible 😉 Sonicware is a small independent company. They don’t have the massive scale advantages of Roland and Behringer. They do the best they can with pricing. People are spoiled these days.
Just checked the price, it’s less than $250… Why is anybody complaining about the price?
I think the OP is suggesting that it should be $100 more expensive in a metal case, that would be nice i think 👍
I/O on top?
Yes
@@ChrisLodyMusic is there a benefit or reason for that?
Personally I like it. I can squeeze Livens and Volcas right up next to each other without the cables getting in the way. I make jams with them on a "synth tray" so it's perfect for that
Wait so i can just use it for normal sounds 🙆♂️
Yes 😁
I'll revisit when they start using usb-c like most other companies in 2024.
So you'll wait until they release a new version which would probably have many changes, making watching this video pointless. Makes sense.
Usb.c would be nice but its not gonna stop me from having fun! Can’t wait for mine😊
Understandable but the hardware was designed from a dawless perspective, keeping cost to the minimum with maximum user input, hence all the knobs. Personally I think having din midi and sync over usb was the right decision on their first hardware platform but I also hope usb appears on more of their future devices
Beautiful video. Down voting for the commercial I was forced to watch before your art.
Down voting? This isn't Reddit.
@@DesertNinjaX you should feel lucky I've never turned on mid video ads to be honest
Probably $1000plus 😢
No they're $249 US
The most biring synth video EVER,!
Lol
I've got some videos that would beg to disagree
Get a life, dude.
EVER? .... Hold my beer!