Equipment
Software
The APCMini launchpad is a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controller that has an 8x8 grid of buttons that you can program. An LED light turns on when a button is programmed with a ‘clip’ (Can change color of LED within Ableton Live 11 Lite).
The far right column of buttons are called the Scene Launch keys. These buttons will play all of the sound clips to their respective row of buttons.
The bottom row of buttons will mute their respective column and stop the clip playing in that column.
Bottom row of fade sliders adjust the volume of clips to their respective column above. The 9th slider, on the right side is the master volume slider.
Four buttons above faders change the function of the sliders. Pressing and holding shift can change them to the different functions: ‘Volume’, ‘Pan’, ‘Send’, and ‘Device’.
To stop all clips playing press and hold shift and press button labeled ‘Stop All Clips’
Holding shift then pressing the ‘Note’ or ‘Drum’ button will change the mode.
Drum mode allows for you to program each button to a different drum sound.
Note mode allows you to play individual notes. Has a variety of modes depending on wants/needs. Red buttons are what note it will start on and yellow indicates the notes in between. To change note mode press and hold Shift, then press and hold the Note button to change the mode. Pressing and holding the lit up buttons will display what each button does.
First two rows set what note the pad will start on (Red buttons).
The four rows above the octave row change the layout of the buttons. While the octave row changes what octave your reds buttons are in.
Db |
Eb |
Gb |
Ab |
Bb |
|||
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
|
Separate rows by 3rd |
Separate Rows by 4th |
Separate Rows by 5th |
Separate Rows by 6th |
||||
Separate Rows by 7th |
Separate Rows by Octave |
Show/Hide Non-Scale Notes |
|||||
Chromatic |
Major |
Melodic Minor |
Harmonic Minor |
Major Pentatonic |
Minor Pentatonic |
Dorian |
Phrygian |
Lydian |
Mixolydian |
Aeolian |
Locrian |
Blues |
Flamenco |
Hungarian |
Whole Tone |
OCT -2 |
OCT -1 |
OCT 0 |
OCT 1 |
OCT 2 |
OCT 3 |
OCT 4 |
OCT 5 |
Using the Novation Launchkey 61 Keyboard
The Launchkey 61 keyboard is a 61 key keyboard that is equipped with a 8x2 pad that are are programable along with various sliders and knobs to adjust to your desired sound. This can be used as a quick reference tool. The full user manual is accessible at the end of this section through a pdf.
Left Side
The blue display on the top displays various things when using the keyboard depending on what buttons are pressed. It will help when changing the setting and functions of the keyboard.
1. The 'Shift' button will change the function of most of the other buttons on the keyboard. Pressing and holding shift then pressing one of the buttons will activate its respective function. The secondary function will be labeled either below or above the button in grey text on the keyboard.
2. 'Settings' Button. Opens settings menu to change settings.
3. 'Track' Buttons will swap between your different tracks. The blue display will also reflect which track you are on when swapping.
4. The '...' , three dots, will put the keyboard into navigation mode. The mini launch pad will light up five of the buttons with a blue LED Light. The four in an upside down 'T' pattern will act as arrow keys within Ableton Live 11.
5. 'Fixed Cord' Button, while pressing and holding will let set up a fixed cord. The first note that is imputed will be your 'root note'.
6. 'Arp' Button turns on and off the keyboards arpeggiator.
7. 'Scale' Button turns on an off the scale mode.
8. 'Octave' Buttons transposes the keyboard's octave. Press both to reset to 0 (zero).
The two wheel on the bottom, Pitch and Modulation, will augment your sound. Pitch will bend the note you are playing. Modulation will modulate the software/hardware parameters.
Pots & Pads
The Pots are the knobs above the pad. These are for changing various audio effects (Swing, Gate, Pan, etc..). Pressing and holding shift will allow you to change what mode the Pots are in and pressing one of the pad buttons on the top row under the grey text 'Pot Mode'.
The Pads, white buttons, located just below are programmable like the APC Mini launch pad. Pressing and holding shift will allow you to change the pad mode then pressing one of the buttons on the bottom.
The up and down arrows allow you to change to different rows of programmed clips, chords, and/or drum racks.
'>' button will launch the first row of clips, scene launch, in Ableton Live.
'Stop Solo Mute' button make the bottom row of buttons turn into track stop, solo, or mute buttons.
'Device Select' button will select the device you want to control using the pads in Ableton Live.
'Device Lock' button will lock the currently selected device controls to the pots in Ableton Live.
Faders
The faders are the nine sliders control different parameters such as Device, Volume, Send A, and Send B. Eight of them are for the individual tracks while the ninth slider is the master controller raising or lowering all tracks.
The fader buttons bellow can be used to either select a track within Ableton Live or to change which parameter the faders are adjusting. The first four buttons are for Device, Volume, Send A, and Send B. The last four are for setting up custom parameters.
The 'Arm/Select' button enables you to select your track within your digital audio workspace (DAW), like Ableton Live, using the fader buttons.
Other Controls
'Capture MIDI' button will capture any notes recently played MIDI notes into the DAW, Ableton live or Garage Band.
'Quantise' button will turn on the quantise function within Ableton.
'Click' button toggles the metronome on and off.
'Undo' button triggers Ableton's undo function
Play, Record, Stop, and Loop are on the bottom row that controls your DAW.
If you are looking for a more detailed information on use of the keyboard refer to the user manual bellow.
Ableton Live has two different modes to work from: Arrangement View and Session View.
Arrangement view is primarily used for creating and mixing tracks. While Session view is more for programming the launchpad and the keyboard’s smaller launchpad. The larger red box in the ‘Session View’ shows what the Launchpad is displaying on the device. The smaller yellow outline is for the keyboard that only highlights two rows instead of eight.
In the bottom left-hand corner of the programs displays the function of the buttons within the program by hovering the mouse cursor over the buttons. But you can use this as a reference as well.
This section mostly highlights the more used buttons
- ‘Play’ button Starts playback and lights up green while on. Hotkey is ‘Spacebar’.
- ‘Stop’ button Stops playback. Hotkey is ‘Spacebar’.
- ‘Arrangement Record Button’ Lights up red when on. While in Arrangement View will start recording on the selected track. Hotkey is ‘F9’.
- ‘MIDI Arrangement Overdub’ . Allows you to mix an already recorded track (will not overwrite previous track).
- ‘Re-Enable Automation’ Re-enables automation for any parameters that are changed in Arrangement or Session clips. Only if parameters are manually changed.
- ‘Capture MIDI’ Click to capture MIDI notes you play creating a new clip in the selected MIDI track.
- ‘Session Record Button’ (Open Circle). Toggles between playback and overdub recording.
- ‘Loop Start/Punch-In Point’ Displays the start of the Arrangement loop or punch-recording region as bars-beats-sixteenth notes. Click to change values and type in numbers.
- ‘Punch-In Switch’. Prevents Arrangement recording prior to punch-in point.
- ‘Loop Switch’ Activate the Arrangement loop.
- ‘Punch-out Switch’ Prevents Arrangement recording after the punch out point.
- ‘Loop/Punch-Region Length’ Displays the length of the Arrangement loop or punch-region as bars-beats-sixteenth notes. Click to change values and type in numbers.
- ‘Draw mode Switch’ Turns Draw mode on and off and lets you draw notes in the ‘Clip View’.
- ‘Computer MIDI Keyboard’ Makes the computer’s keyboard be able to play notes into MIDI tracks. Hotkeys ‘M’ to toggle on and off. ‘z’ / ’x’ to change the octave down/up. ‘c’ / ’v’ changes velocity of notes down/up.
- ‘Key Map Mode Switch’ (‘Key’ button).
- ‘MIDI Map Mode Switch’ Toggles MIDI Map Mode. Session slots display MIDI channel and note number. Mixer and Device controls display their MIDI channel and controller number.
- ‘CPU Load Meter’ Displays CPU usage.
- ‘Link On/Off’
- ‘Tempo Follower On/Off’ Toggles the Tempo Follower. Makes Ableton Live stay in sync with an audio input. To change input device input go to Link/Tempo/MIDI Preferences.
- ‘Tap Tempo’ Click once per pear to set the tempo. All wrapped audio clips will follow the new tempo. Can also be used to count in (ex. Tapping four times for a 4/4 time signature and will start with a new tempo).
- ‘Set Tempo’ Click to type in desired tempo.
- ‘Phase Nudge Down/Up’ Will temporarily decrease/ increase tempo to synchronize to external music. Left is down, right is up.
- ‘Set Time Signature’ Click and type in desired time signature.
- ‘Metronome’ Turns on/off metronome. Click on the arrow to adjust settings.
- ‘Quantization Menu’ Click to choose global launch quantization. Used to avoid rhymical error when playing clips.
Setting up a new Live Set:
Press command button + ‘N’ on the keyboard. On the Menu Bar, at the top of the screen, click ‘File’ -> ‘New Live Set’.
Opening Old Set:
Press command button + ‘O’ (as in Oscar) on the keyboard. On the Menu Bar click ‘File’ -> ‘Open Live Set’. Then locate your saved file.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) tracks are to draw/tap notes and assign an instrument to them. Audio tracks are for playing samples.
Programming the audio tracks works similarly to the MIDI track, but you will drag the file to the desired location on the pad to play the sound clip.
To change inputs for MIDI or audio track.
Blue = 1 Red = 2 Orange = 3 Green = 4 For Microphone Audio track input.
On the left hand side there is a Collections window where you can find a variety of different instruments, sounds, audio effects, and much more.
To program, in the Collections window under Categories click Sounds then locate whatever instrument / sound you’d like to use. Then click, hold, and drag the instrument to the MIDI track. The name will appear at the top of the track. You can use the ‘Note’ mode to play the instrument and record your track. Once you do this then you can play it on the APCMini, Keyboard, or the computer keyboard if enabled. The '.adg' and '.adv' files are for instruments for the MIDI track. The Samples, Grooves, or Clips under the Categories tab are for Audio tracks.
If you would like to add any Audio or MIDI Effects to a MIDI/ Audio track all you have to do is click, hold, drag and drop onto the track you want the effect to be applied to. There are two default audio effects that can be applied to an Audio track by pressing the '-inf' buttons that are on the right had side of the track. One will add reverb and the other will add a delay.
At the very bottom near the '≈' and the blue headphones symbol audio waves will appear playing a sample of a selected audio file. To stop the sample audio playing you can either click on the current sample or click on the blue headphones to mute the track as well. Note that it may mute other sample audios when trying to hear other sample sounds.
Once you have selected your instrument or sound you can start recording. Using either the APCmini, Keyboard, or the computers keyboard you can hit the 'Capture MIDI' button to start recording. Near the bottom of the screen you will see a light grey tab that lets edit your inputs to create the song you want. It will look like the picture below. Note that this tab will change once you have recorded something and will have a lines throughout it.
While in Arrangement View you will first select an area on the track using left mouse button and dragging to desired length of clip. After highlighting the area right click and select 'Insert Empty MIDI Clip(s)' or press Shift + Command + 'M'
Once you have started a new MIDI Clip a window will pop up looking like the image bellow
The tab on the right will have the name of whatever sound or instrument you selected. It will let you change the sound you get though various settings like velocity, pitch, etc..
You can make this window bigger by clicking and dragging just above the window letting you see a wider rage of notes. Looking similar to the picture bellow.
Right clicking in this window will allow you to change the setting of the MIDI Clip. The Fixed Grid changes note length.
Pressing 'Draw Mode' either, the button the top right corner that looks like a pen, or by pressing the letter 'B' on the keyboard. Doing so allows you to draw the notes in. Looking something like this bellow.
Alternatively you can use the APCmini in note mode or the Keyboard and have notes appear on here. All you have to do is click the 'Arm Recording' on the MIDI track and you are ready to start recording. Press the 'Play' button once you are ready to record playing. No need to worry about playing the wrong notes you can always come back and edit them by selecting the incorrect note and pressing the delete key or clicking on it while in 'Draw mode'.
Very useful video for learning the software. It is an older version of the software but still good. Video is ~24 minutes long by InspirAspir
For a more visual aid for the APCMini from AkaiProVideo that goes over some basics of using the APCmini with Ableton Live. Very short and only touch the surface of the program.
Playlist of videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyawkFIWnO1N3gjrN7WuXEiKlaTp2RWJs
After creating your own drum rack or using one of the presets in Ableton Live. After click, hold, drag, and drop onto a MIDI track you can create your own Drum pad.
Bellow is an empty drum rack all you have to do is click, hold, drag and drop the sound you want programed to the corresponding key. You can grab the drums from the Drum Tab on the left window. The drum kits will have presets that you can add or remove sounds. The column of alternating dark and light gray can be adjusted to have more sounds by clicking on the desired area then adding the sound you would like. On the APCMini the button will light up green when it is programed.
Example of a programed kit.
Much like when using the note mode to make a MIDI Clip you will have a secondary window to click in the bottom right hand corner. Looking something like this.
Like the note mode you can either use 'Draw mode' or by pressing the 'Capture MIDI' button and using the APCMini on Drum Mode. Resulting in the image bellow.
From here you can copy by selecting the notes then pressing the command button and 'C' on the keyboard or by right clicking on the window and selecting the copy option. Pasting can be done by pressing command button and 'V' or right clicking and selecting the paste option. The thin light blue line indicates where something will be pasted or the starting location when pressing play.