Part 3: An In-Depth Look at a Live Electronic Music Rig – Effects Chains

In this final post about my electronic live rig with Ableton, I’ll go over the effects – the icing on the cake. Be sure to get to the end for FREE DOWNLOADS of my main effects racks AND my personal Ableton Live Session Template for live performance!

It would be silly to go over an Ableton session and not talk about effects. Ableton is chock full of great effects, and the modular rack system they developed is absolutely stellar. However, this is also one of the more challenging aspects of the software.

I mentioned in part 1 of this series that the trick to using Ableton effectively is to limit what it does. It doesn’t matter that it can basically do everything – the power comes when you focus on a specific set of tasks. So in the same spirit, I’ll show you that I actually limit the amount of effects available to me, and I make sure I know how to use those effects to their potential.

Hardware Channels

So you know I run three standalone electronic instruments: Roland TR-8, Korg Electribe 2, and Novation Bass Station 2. They are on channels 1-3, respectively. TR-8 and Electribe each have great on-board effects, so I run one single effect within the software: a limiter.

I set the limiter with a ceiling of about -1dB. This is simply so I don’t accidentally clip my signal if it’s coming in too hot. I stay away from any additional effects because the more effects you run on a monitored channel, the more time it takes to process the incoming signal before sending it back out again. Ableton also has to compensate by pushing back any internal sounds in order to keep the external and internal sounds in sync. The time is miniscule – measured in milliseconds – but it manifests as latency. Since the goal is minimal latency, run minimal effects – particularly on your incoming sounds.

Channel 3 is the Bass Station. This is different because I run the external instrument plug-in within a small effects rack I created for a delay. The delay rack is interesting because I created it specifically to add delay to the top end of the bass sound. You generally do not want your low frequencies delayed – it will only sound messy and muddy. To sidestep this problem, I created a dual chain rack with the dry signal and a high-passed wet signal running in parallel. The FX Amount knob controls the level of the wet signal. Otherwise, it’s just a regular delay.

Software Channels

Channel 4 runs my soft synths, which I set up in order to have multiple synths and synth patches I could call up in-set without dropping them in (again, BAD IDEA). I’ll release a full post on how to create that virtual device, but it’s a bit deep for the scope of this article. Here’s a hint, though: it’s very similar to setting up the LPD8.

The effect on this channel is a custom rack featuring Auto Filter, Phaser, and Flanger. The custom device with the synths sits inside this effects rack.

Channel 5 runs drum loops, so I don’t really need much in terms of effects here. All I set here is a limiter – just in case.

Channels 6 – 8 have the biggest effects rack next to perhaps the Dub Delay (available for download here). I called it Standard FX when I created it. It’s a rack featuring Auto Filter, Beat Repeat, Delay, and Reverb. Originally designed specifically for vocals, I find this rack also works well with synth sequences. The Beat Repeat is not to be abused, but it provides a nice, glitchy touch when called upon.

A neat trick I use to save CPU and minimize latency is to deactivate the effects when they are not being used. You can set this up as an automatic action easily by mapping the Device On button of the delay and reverb to their Dry/Wet macros, respectively. Just make sure you set the min/max to 1 – 127. This tells Ableton that if the macro is set to 0, the effect is off.

Channel 10, SC Comp, only has a basic compressor keyed by the ghost kick. You can access this setting by expanding the plug-in and selecting your key track in the sidechain menu. The channel is set to monitor incoming signals, and I route the tracks I want affected to this channel.

Returns

Return A is a big reverb. I use the Large Factory preset on Ableton’s native Reverb (all plug-ins I use live are native to Ableton). It’s good for some basic spacial effects

Return B is my favorite – the Dub Delay. I based my rack on one someone else created, though I can’t for the life of me remember who it was. It uses native Ableton plug-ins to mimic the sound and behavior of an old-school Space Echo type tape delay. A deeper look at this particularly satisfying rack will be forthcoming in a future post. It’s not as straightforward as the simpler racks – especially with the hard-map to the LPD8.

Scroll to the bottom for the free Dub Delay download, along with a few other freebies!

Master Channel

Finally, on my master track, I run a modified DJ style channel strip with a delay and reverb tacked on for good measure. I use EQ 3 and a simple low-pass filter just how you would expect to use on a standard DJ mixer, with the exception that my filter knob is not a dual low-pass/high-pass. There are ways to make one, but frankly I never got around to it. You can find a simple solution in this article from MusicRadar.com

The effects chain is another one I developed to work in a specific way. I built this rack to allow me to pile on delay and/or reverb while simultaneously lowering the direct sound for a nice sounding washout. Then when the drop comes, I can kill the feed to the effect, raise the main signal to normal, and allow the effects to decay naturally behind the track – all with one button on the LPD8.

Again, this rack’s complexity is a bit more than the general scope of this article, so expect to see it as a standalone post in the future.

Conclusion

That’s it for my internal effects. I realize I left out some of the juicy bits – the deep dives into the Dub Delay and Master FX chains – but they would simply take too much text to explain in an article that’s already a little bit longer that it should be.

Fear not, though. If you are interested in detailed rundowns of any of my racks, leave a comment below or drop me a message on the contact page.

For now though, here are the downloads I promised! Feel free to take and modify my Master FX chain, Dub Delay chain, Standard FX chain below. And lastly, go ahead and take my Live Session Template. Modify it to suit your own live needs. I’m interested in hearing how it goes. So if you do use these freebies, drop me a line and tell me what you think!

-Chris Lazaga
AudioMunk

Free Downloads for Ableton Live 10

Ableton Live Session Template – The Stack
Master Channel DJ FX Rack – The Stack
Standard FX Rack – The Stack
Dub Delay Rack – The Stack