Create Digital Music » Ableton Live 8 Creative Tutorial Videos: Misusing Frequency Shifter

Apr 14 2009

Ableton Live 8 Creative Tutorial Videos: Misusing Frequency Shifter

“Frequency Shifter”: that’s for, um, frequency shifting, right?

Not necessarily. As Ableton’s Dennis DeSantis shows us in our final video tutorial of this series, in addition to the usual special effects, frequency shifting can be used for subtler results, like fine-tuning percussion. He shows us how to make the Frequency Shifter into a powerful tool for sound sculpting and sound design.

I’ve always enjoyed Live’s effects and the approaches they encourage to sound, so I really welcome this example.

Got more tutorials you’d like to see? Let us know.

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Ableton Live 8 Creative Tutorial Videos: Using and Misusing Groove Extraction

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6 Comments

SoundDesignTutorials

Excellent tutorial on the subtle use of Frequency Shifter. I’ve been putting it on nearly all of my kick drums since Live 8 came out, doing fine adjustments in a similar way. The results are really stunning yet subtle. This device is definitely one of the most useful in Live’s already excellent arsenal of effects.

April 14, 2009 @ 5:15 am

Ableton Live 8 Creative Tutorial Videos: Misusing Frequency Shifter « irony islet

[...] http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/04/14/ableton-live-8-creative-tutorial-videos-misusing-frequency-... [...]

April 14, 2009 @ 5:48 am

justin

you know, i love CDM, but these posts are really a no-go. how am i going to explain to my wife that i need one more piece of software? “yes, i know that i said that Max/MSP was the only thing i *needed*, but i *need* live 8 too.”

April 14, 2009 @ 11:16 am

Peter Kirn

@justin — Ha!

Well, in fairness, there’s absolutely no shame to applying some of these techniques elsewhere. The groove extraction feature is specific to Live in terms of this particular technique (the first video, at least), but once you start down this path with frequency shifting, you can apply it all over the place — a good thing even if you’re primarily using Live.

Alternatively, we can produce quick printable handsouts to significant others explaining purchases. ;)

April 14, 2009 @ 11:33 am

twitter/AbletonVids

Excellent Tutorial, something I will definitely experiment with. It has a much more organic and less processed sound using this technique. very cool.

April 15, 2009 @ 10:04 am

Create Digital Music » Ableton Live 8 Creative Tutorial Videos: Using and Misusing Groove Extraction

[...] also part 3 for alternative techniques with the Frequency Shifter – tune percussion with this effect instead of getting the usual metallic special [...]