posted in the ‘current sounds’ threads too, but this seems appropriate.
The first of hopefully many beats to come out of DT (and OT when i understand it more).
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That’s cool man, got a very 90s trip hop vibe, the drums don’t sound robotic to me though, you’re probably feeling that way about them because your m.o. is usually a lot more off kilter… dope beat👍
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Yo, Ableton beat makers! I just got a MacBook and started the Ableton Trial version yesterday. So far I’ve spent maybe an hour and a half on it trying to get to grips with it. I made one drum pattern and looped a sample and that’s about it. I also managed to make a poor “master” of a unreleased track, which is likely to be my main use case since I have an MPC. But, I’d like to perhaps learn how to make beats with just me and Ableton.
How feasible is it to make beats with just Ableton and the laptop keyboard as the midi controller? And what would you recommend as far as learning materials for Ableton Hip-hop? Like what’s an easy way to chop samples, play in drums, etc. I know there isn’t an easy solution for everything, so I’m willing to climb the learning curve, but anything to make the ascent easier would be welcome.
I know @Symian and @rockpapergoat use it a lot for their productions. Dunno who else uses Ableton 
Thanks in advance to anyone who answers 
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No worries mate, as far as chopping goes in Ableton there a variety of ways you can go about it, you can drag stuff into the arrangement view and do it there by destructive means or if you are looking to do it like you would in the mpc then the simpler device is the way to go, I highly recommend getting a pad controller to go with it even if it’s a used launchpad X or pro, they’ll take you a long way and will definitely be worth the investment…
There’s a multitude of tutorials regarding simpler and audio chopping on the tube but I can highly recommend stranjahs channel, its drum and bass focused but it’s all Ableton and I’ve learned loads from it regarding chopping breaks with both methods I mentioned as well as plenty of other gems and insight into Ableton as an environment…
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Be good to hear what you cook up with Ableton mate!
I’ve made plenty of things using my laptop keyboard as a midi controller and recording in playing. You’ve obviously got no velocity as you play, but the c&v keys are velocity up and down I think. I’ve found a combo of piano roll editing and recording live (laptop) keyboard takes isn’t too bad at all.
Definitely worth getting familiar with keyboard shortcuts in general.
This was a different and interesting way to chop new to me a few years back. Def explore Simpler chopping and drum racks too though 
I enjoy mixing up techniques.
This is a good one on swing using the piano roll and watching the guy using it you’ll prob pick up some stuff. Sure it’s similar to mpc’s anyway
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As mentioned above, I use simpler to chop samples (Serato Sample is also a very good plugin, if you’re willing to spend money) and use the keyboard to play the chops. Personally, I use drum racks for my drum one shots, and will either draw in drums on a clip, or use the keyboard to play them in live depending on my mood.
You can definitely use the keyboard to play everything, but sometimes it feels better to have a pad controller, if that’s what you’re used to. I’ve made plenty a beat using only the keyboard, though. Ableton stock plug-ins are pretty solid for what they do, too.
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will echo what others have said so far. there are tons of tutorials on youtube. basically, all the same principles you already know from hardware apply. the stock ableton plugins can get you pretty far.
i don’t have a controller with pads (well, i do but don’t use it, because it’s too big), so most of the time i just use the laptop’s keyboard. i’ll connect a keystep if velocity sensitivity or playing a wider range of notes matters, or when i want to play stuff in live. even for playing in drums, a keyboard controller can get you pretty far.
simpler is fine for slicing and manipulating samples. live suite has the “sampler” instrument, which i guess is more powerful, but i almost never use it.
definitely use drum racks for drum one shots. adjust velocity once you get patterns down, and move notes off grid so it sounds just right. also check out the various swing/groove options to get you in a good spot.
i recommend focusing on building tracks, working with clips/loops, and arranging for now. once you get that down, i’d encourage you to build up project templates and racks to speed your process. you can save a lot of time by using a rack for standard track effects/parameters, for instance.
oh, i also always have two separate screens or windows up, even though i’m just on this puny 13" laptop. it just feels easier to switch screens between clip/track view when i’m generating ideas and arrangement view to lay them all in place. also, i never show any of the track or effects on the arrangement view — it’s just the arrangement. any mastering or eq or whatever happens on the other screen. maybe you’ll find this is annoying, but it was worth mentioning after my trial and error.
whatever you do, have fun, and don’t get discouraged. tons of producers use ableton or some other DAW exclusively.
it’s not ableton, but check out barry’s beats series. he looks like he works in some office, but his beats hit hard. https://youtu.be/mGzbPI8e_yg
oh snap… i forgot about this one, where he goes over using addictive drums instead of a sampled drum break. it’s a killer technique that i never use ( 
):
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I’m pretty sure I still have Ableton Lite even though I sold my Keystep. Might mess around and give it a go
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One thing I will add is that I hear a lot of people saying that they can get the authentic sounding swing going in Ableton, my own opinion is that it’s totally possible and you don’t even have to use groove pool to do it, just play that stuff in and make sure you keep your quantise settings around 65 percent and if you’ve got reasonable rhythm it’s all good, another hot tip is that on hats and stuff you want to shuffle you can use the track delay on them to advance or retard the hits… of course they need to be on a separate track to do this… it’s the small D button in the bottom right of the screen to reveal delay setting for individual tracks, i find it’s a bit quicker than editing at the clip level…
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Thanks everyone for the tips! I hope to dig in tonight and see where it takes me. I’ll let you know how I progress.
Also @Symian damn I forgot about Launchpads! Those can be fairly cheap too. I might have to check those out. Although, it would be cool to use my MPC as a controller…I’ll have to look into that.
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Yeah mate you can use the Ableton control mode of your mpc to control the session mode of Ableton but a launch pad X or pro will give you far more tactile and tightly integrated and imho enjoyable experience with learning live… enjoy 
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Here’s my latest AR beat, sampled some 50’s space age music…
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I havent made music this past three month, exept this one. As usual this is a DT only beat, stereo out in reaper. Made it for a beat battle last month in my city.
I wrote the lyrics soon after and recorded it yesterday.
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Just wanted to share some progress on learning Ableton. This is my first fully finished beat made all in Ableton, and I’ve got several other tracks in various states of progress.
To be honest I ended up not watching any of the videos you all posted and just figured out things on my own. I’m really surprised how far I’ve gone already, but I will definitely be watching those vids eventuallky, now that I’ve seen what I could do on my own.
I’ll keep y’all posted with more demos and tracks in the future. 
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Noice! Sounds like it’s coming together for you fella, it’s a real simple workflow once you know your way round a little, I think you’ll be surprised how quickly you can achieve a decent result…
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It actually makes a lot of sense! I think the MPC was the perfect stepping stone to Ableton. I just took what I knew how to do on the MPC and applied it to Ableton. Once my trial is up I will definitely be purchasing Ableton
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Not sure where to post this haha
Let’s all be happy we aren’t stooping this low.
This mght be the shittest diss attempt I’ve ever heard against someone who’s only remaining redeeming feature as an artist is he might beat you if you send for him.
sweet history lesson with some production insights i wish talib probed deeper on.
also the recent preemo large professor stream has some great stories/production stories.
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Oooh nice. Talib gets some quality guests on doesn’t he.
Been geeking out on these A Beat Happening podcasts. It’s kinda niche but for those into the so called beat scene from the mid late noughties and where it came from etc it’s really interesting.
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I made some hiphop beats (for some reason i have not done any so far) and i decided i might continue doing a series, even if they are only sketches i find interesting or fun in some way ( the name of this series is also supposed to not be serious at all! ).
I made only three so far using DT DN and blofeld, two of them are a bit long but i could not get myself to discards parts i liked, also my mastering is a bit hit and miss.
hope you enjoy, i will try to keep them coming!
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