ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- One of the biggest killers of creativity is poor workflow. Nothing stops a music-making session in its tracks like having to dig around for that sample, sound or effect you want to use...
In this live session, I walk you through the basics of getting organised in Ableton Live so you can always find what you're looking for.
You'll learn the basics of how files work in Ableton, how to best use The User Library and Collections, what the different file types are and much more.
- - - - - - - -
💬 QUESTIONS?
Post them in the comments.
❤️ SHOW SOME LOVE
Keep these videos coming by supporting what I do at elphnt.io/supp...
- - - - - - - -
Hi 👋🏻 my name is Tom; I’m a music maker and Ableton Certified Trainer. I help people make better music with Ableton Live. Download instruments and effects and watch tutorial videos at elphnt.io
![[Watch Party] RoV Pro League 2024 Winter | ( Bacon Time Vs PSG )](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/zM25REvnJW4/mqdefault.jpg)
Whoop! Thanks for coming y'all 🙏 This was my first ever live stream on this channel, so if you've got any comments, feedback, things that could be better, etc. let me know! Also, let me know what topics you want me to cover in future live streams! 🤓
Thanks for the tips. I am a long time user of ableton. You gave me some valuable tips. I have been frustrated by abletons file structure for a long time. Never thought of putting it all into my user library. Thank you
Thanks for doing this, I REALLY needed it,I had no idea about the user library, I always just made custom folders in the browser. Also,I wanted to know how you go about getting ableton certified. Very Interested. Most of my producer buddies use either Pro Tools (Too Confusing,WAY TOO EXPENSIVE) Or FL Studio (WAY TOO CONFUSING). I DJ also and found ableton is the best all around,I started on the Maschine MK3 and Maschine 2 Daw,but sold it for my Push 2 and never looked back. I never could grasp the whole "Scenes and Patterns " gig. Thank You for all the informative videos and just all around Ableton help you give,You have no idea how much you have helped me jump light years ahead with Ableton,Sir you are an Ableton God!!!!
I'm new to Ableton - just got 11 suite and Push 2. This was extremely helpful!!!!! Many thanks.
I would like to see how you approach drums, especially sound selection and sound design. Quality content as always. Keep on mate
@@mikepowell6645 Thank you for the kind words! 😊 As for becoming Certified, check out: www.ableton.com/en/education/certification-program/. I think the process has been a bit up in the air because of COVID - usually Ableton has a Certification team that travels around doing events, but obviously they're not able to with COVID. In any case, check out the link and submit an interest form.
The hardest thing with DAW’s is just remembering all the stuff you can actually do.
well put
Truly one of the biggest barriers to getting into a "flow" and purely making music is the roadblocks from poor workflow or sample / sound accessibility. I think this tutorial is definitely a huge resource for tearing down some of that barrier and focusing on *_just making music_* .
Build your own mind map covering that.
@@CuriousPassenger planning its since ages, shit
FACTS
After installing Ableton Live, this is the FIRST STEP to being productive. I have NO IDEA why your video is not featured on the Ableton Live website as "REQUIRED VIEWING...Sounds like someone is playing DEFENSE on you right now....Great Video and possibly the MOST IMPORTANT Ableton Live Video.....of all TIME.....
Most people would rather watch a cool video about how to make music, but you give us a good fundamental understanding of something that will affect our workflow all the time. Thanks!
GREAT !!! The best tips to improve our workflow and go from beginner to advanced. Thanks !!! Greetings from Mexico.
So THAT'S what ELPHNT looks like!! 😱
Thanks for the ace content as always!
The perpetual confusion about files and folders and Ableton. Oh why the hell does it have to be so fucking complicated. Thank you for your very informative video. It's worth its weight in gold.
I personally think that workflow improvement and organization is the most safest way to just keep going and finish your tracks and get more and more idea out of it. It’s like recovering from a huge headache, and suddenly all of your ideas are more clear and you really don’t have any more pain to just being focused. That’s said, I need to organize my stuff rn, so yeah, thanks you Tom for your time and I really really appreciate your content, most useful and clear Ableton Live instructor out there
After watching countless hours of video content on how to use Ableton, and mixing, mastering, sound design, ad nauseum, I find this video to be one of the most useful of all of them. It's really dry stuff but it's super important and it's not really covered anywhere else, that I've found. Thanks so much!
Glad to hear it!! 🙌
I've used Ableton for about 10 years and there were some really great tips in this video that I wish I'd known! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for doing this buddy!
This is imo one of the most important topic when working with a DAW (which basically is just a funny [musical] files manager) and yet nobody ever took the time to go in-depth with the topic.
Very often I see people confused about how this all works, why they "lose" their files and so on, and since it's not possible to explain this quickly with a few lines on e.g a forum it's always hard to help others on this specific topic. I'm so glad I can now link to this video!
Woohoo!
I needed this so bad. I struggle so much with file management and this just blew my mind. thanks so much for sharing this!
I watched you present this on Daisy a while back and was so blown away by your tips that I forgot to take notes. I'm so glad you decided to share your stream because now I can go back and actually implement your advice. Thank you!
this is so good. After more than 10 years on protools I've been climbing all over the DAW ladder at Live
As someone with ADHD I feel like organisation of my daw really gets me down and stops me being happy making music. I really hope this helps when putting it into practice because it seems really solid. Ty Mr ELPHNT
Same for me! this video is mind blowing
Excellent, thank you so much for this!
This is such great straight forward lecture on the library. Thank you! Would love to hear how your approach has changed with Ableton 12. Thanks again!
Actually not much, tbh, 'cause I was already quite happy with how my library was organised. But, with the new stuff in 12.1 I might start thinking about doing a slight re-org, so we'll see how that goes.
Thanks for sharing your discoveries. I am an organization freak in that I am always looking for new ways to "simplify" the workflow. I hardly use some of the Categories so fully incorporating the Collections section and tidying up the side browser seems like a win. Cheers ELPHNT.
Absolute gold, thank yo so much!
thank you so much for saving these to watch later! I've been wanting to tune into your livestreams but didn't always get the chance to due to timezone differences
Absolutely superb tutorial, thank you very much indeed!
Best Video I've seen on Library so far. Thank You!!!
Big virgo energy. I love it.
Loooool 😂 I'm totally a Virgo 🤣
amazing tutorial. One thing to consider which i missed is that its important to have all your amxd files in a fixed folder structure/location. Because when you start moving/organizing amxd devices on the finder level you loose the link from the adv files and you will have to reconnect them, which can be a pain. 👍
Thank you! I have some bad Ableton habits I need to clean-up:-)
The best video on sample/project organisation out there. Super clear and detailed, thanks a lot!
Excellent (still only 17 mins in) - now I only have 12 years of mess to clean up !!!
Thank you for EXXELENT tips and very clear walkthru ! And thank you for recording this HERE, as I could not be present when it went live. 💚
You did one LIVE on - Advanced Sidechain - which I unfortunately missed, would love if you could do it once more and record it here as well , that would be much appreciated.
LOVE
Working on a more 'polished' version of the sidechain one at the moment actually. Probably be a little while till its released though... You'll hear about it when it is 😉
I'd even say this video was EXCLLNT!
btw I m in love with NTPD 2.. my fav max 4 live plugin ever.
Great stuff, linked up, thanks friend 😎🖤🍭
Whoop! 🙌
Hey great 1sty livestream! Filer systems organization is so important its great to see this for ableton
Specially when it comes to using live with push, this tutorial is a game changer, i felt like going to the chiro but for music production lol def needed it and didnt know!
Live uses 32-bit float for all internal processing except for the mix summing which is 64-bit
What a great video! I was lost trying to come up with how to organize things, and I did not even start to think about the User Library; I always thought of that as an un-changeable Live system folder.
Thanks for sharing your Ableton organisation. I find your explanations very helpful and have just refreshed my user library. 😃👍🏻
I wish I’d watched this sooner. Lost important vocal files for a track, didn’t know at all about the collect thing
Thanks for the great tutorial!!!
It would be really cool if you did a livestream on how to make these cool instrument racks. Also a stream where you just compose music to see ypur workflow and learn! Thanks for all the amazing content
Cool! Noted 👍
You're videos are great and helpful. Thanks very much!
Yes!!
Starts at 1:25 ✌️
Thanks! Another amazingly helpful guide. Really appreciate you sharing your knowledge like this.
Thank you so much Tom! Awesome !
Amazing video, thank you so much!!
Hey! I was wondering if you could post a video about workflow in Live12 with the changes in the Browser, the pros and cons with Collections vs tags list, etc … Some kind a update of this video. I will love to know your opinion and approach with this "confusing" new browser. Thanks!
Nothing much has changed for me. Collections are still the heart of my setup, and the new Filters and Search tools are just really handy when I want to find something that doesn't fall within what I've already organised into my Collections. I'm sure I'll do an updated video on it at some point, though 😉
Also trying to get my head around this... Thanks for the info, I think I'm going to use your user folder system as clean and logical... Though as the collections can be 'tagged' directly from push 2, I think I shall try and keep the focus of the collections to use with push, not quite sure what that looks like, but I imagine for tagging sounds I chance upon when browsing that I can also later file away... So more my sounds of the moment I guess?
Thanks for sharing your approach, very well thought through.
I needed this video so much. Thanks man. 🙏
Great video bro! You help me so much!
Wonderful video, thanks!
big help. thanks for the video.
This is pure gold!!!!
Thank you so much for all the amazing tips!
Thanks!
Thanks for this video, very useful!
elphnt you are a god
GOAT
Super awesome video bud! Love that you covered saving custom setups. Also, super annoying when people join a live chat stream and start B.S.'ing about crap that has absolutely nothing to do with the video. (You know who you are.)
great tutorial 👍 im fan your content, its useful.
Hey mate, your hair has certainly grown! If you take requests at all, I would love a video on your masterclass from 'Sparking Creativity and Generating Ideas in Ableton Live' but aimed for Live 11. This single video has done so much for my inspiration and taking action, it would be great to explore how this same workflow can carry over to Live 11!
Haha, lol. #lockdownlocks. And noted re: the request. I assume you're referring to the dBS workshop? Honestly, most of that is the same in Live 11. There are a few new things with all the chance and randomness stuff, but I cover most of that in this video: th-cam.com/video/xYdKSOoVUz4/w-d-xo.html.
Really awesome and helpful! Thank you!
This is excellent, thank you so much!
Suuuuper helpful! thank you
Love ya, man.
Excellent, please more of this! I’m interested to know whether you arrange your instruments into further subfolders based on the type of sound they create (e.g, bass, keys, like Ableton have)? And where do you draw the line on what you copy into your user library and what you keep in its existing place in Ableton?
I do, kinda, except I like to keep my sounds pretty open so I have 'Mono', 'Poly', 'Arp' and 'FX'. And I save pretty much anything I use regularly into the User Library.
Hi! Thanks for the this:) do you have a video showing how you record your tutorial videos? Audio routing, which programs you use for screen recording etc…?
I don't, but that could be a goof topic for future. It's quite simple though - for pre-recorded stuff I use Screenflow, which is excellent. For the live stream it was all OBS.
Thanks! Is your mic for your voice plugged into a interface and then you use system audio output for the sound from ableton? And that’s just mixed in screen flow or OBS then? Which mic do you use? It sounds nice for voice over
@@hendrikbisschoff The mic is the Røde PodMic - www.rode.com/microphones/podmic. Really affordable and sounds pretty decent. That goes straight into an interface, yeah. For recording in Screenflow - there's a Screenflow component that lets you record system audio. For OBS I use Loopback to route the system audio.
@@ELPHNT Thanks so much! thats great!
great video. thank you
Thanks for this. I love the fact you can save the 'channel strip' but one thing I noticed is that the track delay setting is not saved with it. I wonder why?
Creating your own sound library is a sure way to get a distinct consistent sound.
This is great! Question for you: where do you save your user library? External hard drive or on your device?
Dropbox, actually. On the internal hard drive.
Good one!
Hey fantastic tutorial, i tried adopting it but i found lives preview doesnt work, even if you just move a factory preset to your user library. Do you know of any work arounds?
Yeah, that's kinda annoying... there aren't any great workarounds unfortunately. Probably the only way I could think of would be create a short clip that demos the sound and save that as a Live Clip (.alc) by dragging and dropping it into the library. That will save both the instrument and the MIDI clip, but the .alc file will preview in The Browser. You can then load the Clip which will load the instrument and the MIDI, then just delete the MIDI 🤷♂️
🙏🏼
3:24
5:44
9:48
11:08
12:05
14:41
17:11
18:15
19:04
20:37 amxd file
22:47 adg file
24:15
26:07 manage files dialogue
27:05 collect all and save
28:36
29:06
30:04 manage project
31:42 test project
32:30
37:59
Thanks Man! I've been hunting for a In depth lecture into this for a while. So I can't help but be nosey, can I ask what you keep in the Building folder?
I guess a better name for that would be Temporary - it's really just stuff I haven't quite decided where to put yet, or new racks I'm currently building.
Heya, have you had any more thoughts about best ways to get organized with the refreshed browser in Live 12?
At the moment, not much has changed for me - still using exactly these methods and techniques to organise stuff. But I'm starting to think about better ways to organise using the new Live 12 stuff. Particularly with the new bits in Live 12.1, like tagging folders and auto-tagging things are getting closer to a point where I'd be ready to switch over to using Filters and Tags. We'll see...
can you expound on how to make "VIEWS" in live and to recall them?
What do you mean by VIEWS?
Hi! Awesome content, thanks! Organising my User Library right now)
Can you please specify contents of your Effects collection folders? What's in Control folder? And Misc. And Voice&Pitch. =)))
Haha, there are quite a few things in each, too many to list here. I just group things based on what makes sense to me - so Voice and Pitch are things like Auto Tune or Pitch Hack. Control is mostly Max For Live control devices, like LFO, Envelope Follower, etc. I'd recommend just figuring out whatever system works best for you!
Good video and some interesting tips, but still a bit fiddly and a large upfront management cost for those with large libraries or moving computers, and all completely unnecessary if they just allowed us a few more collections colours.
tysm for the great video. How do you preview sounds for instrument presets that dont have the "auto preview" once you put them in your user library/collections?
When I click on one of the collections (i.e. the red one), I just see a huge flat list of items under "Name". I noticed your list is organized underneath what looks like folders (with names like "Instruments", "Samplers", "Synths") with is WAY more useful. I've looked through the preferences wondering if I have something set incorrectly and can't find anything.
He explains that of you use folders in the User Library you are able to color code folders from the library. Have not tried it myself however
Such an amazing video! I love organization and workflow and this was just what I needed! One question... if I want to save samples (.wav or .aif) into my User Library, what would you recommend doing? Whenever I drag & drop it saves as .alc with all the processing. What if I just wanted the sample itself and for example one shot that I created in my project? Thanks for you help!
As great as .alc files are, sometimes you just want a good old sample, which can be annoying! 😅 There's not really a perfect way around this, but I usually just drop whatever I want into the Arrangement, Freeze and Flatten it and then do a File → Export Audio/Video. A bit long winded, but its about the quickest way to just get an actual .wav or .aiff sample 🤷♂️
@@ELPHNT Yeah that makes a ton of sense! Really appreciate your input! Cheers!
I’ve made a organized folder 📁 for all my presets sounds and plugins as you show in this tutorial. Te Folder is called Studio and it’s located at user library. But when I asign a color to organize it in the different sections of the browser they appear duplicate every time.
Man I tried this and it really messed up my project folders. I am going to try just puting most everything on an external HD top level.
Really cool idea though.
I literally beg ableton to add a few more colors / folders to the top left
I've never used User Library. I have my sample library in dropbox, and have that as a custom location. User library is so much better 😂 also. I've lost projects due to missing files. It kills me. So i was gonna start exporting samples to the project, so i never lose the samples. Because it's so dumb that ableton doesn't just do that. How did i not know about collect all and save 🤦🏻♂️ you've saved me so much. Welp. I'm gonna have to watch the whole vid cause i clearly don't know squat haha
Hey, thats a great video! Do you know of a way to get rid of unused samples in i.e. drumracks or multisampled sampler instr? That would be great to have... :)
I assume you mean like a Drum Rack where you have multiple samples loaded, but maybe some of them just aren't currently being used? Unfortunately there's no way to find those, other than manually diving through the Rack. If you're juts talking about samples that you've collected into the Project and then removed, go to File -> Manage Files... -> Manage Project or User Library, depending on what you wanna manage, and then check out the 'Unused Files' section to find those.
@@ELPHNT OK thank you. Yes i was asking about the first one!
if you just copy your amxd files to your user library in the finder, live will not make a referene file/ it will just add the actual device, which you then can add to collections of choice. Installing a amxd by dragging as instrument first will create a mess. I simply copy any amxd files to a amxd folder im the user library. after that you can aimply move them around in folders and add them to collections if needed. just don't drag a new amxd file to a channel in ableton as a install method.
a lot of the stock audio and midi tools include presets. is there a way to move the tools along with their presets to the user library? Thank you for the tips bro!
You'd have to save the presets individually as .adg files. Unfortunately there's no way to save it with all the presets included. I think some future updates to the new Live 12 Browser system is gonna change how this all works for the better though 😉
Hi ELPHNT, one of the hardest thing I've found moving to Ableton was how the Return Tracks are set up. You can't move them or group them, and creating audio tracks and routing them to act as Return tracks is a huge hassle. Then I saw Illangelo (The Weeknd's producer) using Effects Chains to act as Return Tracks, so most tracks on his production will have an Effects Rack with the clean chain, reverb chain, 1/4 delay chain, 1/8 delay chain etc. Do you have any insight on this?
I guess my insight is, yeah, you can do it 🤷♂️ It's really just a personal preference thing. Ableton Returns work pretty well for me most of the time, but there are certain situations where I find the parallel rack approach works pretty well. Definitely give it a try and see how it works for you.
would love to know where illangelo shows this, sounds interesting
@@sabeelmusic2093 It's on Mix With The Masters, he has two episodes there breaking down a couple of The Weeknd songs
Oh you have no idea how much frustration you have just lifted off me! I’ve been pulling my hair trying figure out how to save samples without the project they’re in.
😊ty
🙇♂👏👏👏
Hi Master ELPHNT, I have a question. @ 12:52 we see your structure (folders) in the userLibrary SAMPLES Folder. How do you do this. When I import extern Instruments (sampler) or store devices with samples, all files automaticaly (chaoticly) check in at the SAMPLES Folder (without any structure - an I hate this). would love to know how you organize this. cheers.
What a shame I missed the session. I might have another question. I am struggling with files management when sampling an instrument. For instance I sample an external synth 2 octaves 3 notes per octave at 3 different velocities. Then use sampler to create an instrument out of it. Then I save the instrument into my user library and files get copied into imported. There it might get really messy. I tend to create a folder in my user library where I want to store these samples. Basically, within the user library, I move these samples to designated folder. However, then I have to relink the files within the sampler using manage files and save again. Is there anything easier? I have noticed that you touched the subject matter in your video and I noticed that you have the samples organized in a similar way I do. I really appreciate your answer. Best regards Roman
Thanks for video my friend. I have a question that is confusing the tar out of me? I am ordering a new MacbookPro. They have option to upgrade internal SSD drive to 4 TB. My question can you use a single internal SSD drive to install everything (operating system, Ableton, Komplete, Plugins, documents and both audio and video projects? I like the idea of having a simple workflow and use a cloud based service or secondary drive to backup samples and projects. Just wondering now that they have these super fast processors and huge SDD drives if using a secondary drive is necessary. Thanks
If you've got the space I'd always recommend running as much as possible on an internal drive for max performance.
What’s the difference between a pack, and a max for live device? Why are there two different places for these, and how can I combine them both into one? My Max for live tools feel unorganized.
Packs are official releases from Ableton, usually purchased from the Ableton store (or included with your version of Live). Max For Live devices are the individual instruments and effects and can be made and released by anyone and therefor can be found in many places across the internet, including inside of official Ableton Packs. So an Ableton Pack contains many different tools; samples, devices, presets, Max for Live devices, whereas a single Max For Live device is just one instrument or effect.
Is there a way to manage the Samples folder in the User Library? I feel like everything just gets thrown in there. Do you just leave it as is, or do you organize it somehow? I don't want to mess anything up! I learned a lot from this tutorial, thanks so much!
There isn't unfortunately, it's just kinda a system folder that collects all samples related to files in the User Library. I'd recommend leaving it as is. Also a good reason as to why to keep your actual samples folder somewhere separate. And you're welcome 😃❤
@@ELPHNT Got it! So the “Samples” in the “User Library” are reference files? Do you keep the actual files on a ext. hard drive? Last noobie questions, I promise! Lol
I would just make another folder in the user library and use that to collect and organize your samples (or several folders maybe) just leave that folder for doing it’s own thing.
@@SefaDrums The samples in the User Library are actual samples, but they're samples that are referenced by presets within the User Library, for example if you've saved a Drum Rack into the User Library that uses some samples, those samples will be copied into the User Library. I'd recommend having a separate location for your regular samples folder. That could be in the User Library, but it could also be somewhere else, like an external drive if you like.
I notice that live is not making folder if I save Drum rack or samplers with samples from factory packs
In Live's Preferences, under the Library tab there's a setting called "Collect Files on Export". Make sure that's on either 'Always' or 'Ask'.
great tutorial! wondering where in your "Instruments", "Samplers" and "Synths" folders are located in your user library? thanks in advance
I just have a 'Sounds' folder in the User Library which has those 3 plus "Presets" in it.
@@ELPHNT Thanks Tom, so this sounds folder resides along side your Studio folder not inside it?
@@311RealtyGroup No, Sounds is a sub-folder within my 'Studio' folder.
Just for clarification, for example, if I were to save a rack to my User Library (on the cpu hard drive) with multiple wav files that are stored on my external drive, would it also save those wavs on the cpu hard drive in that samples folder? Would it move them there? Or just reference them still on the external hard drive but just “store” in the Abelton browser? Thanks for any help
There's a setting you can change that affects this, but by default they will be copied into the User Library's Samples folder.