Live beginners, want to graduate to Live ninja? Sample pack maker Infrasonik has posted a video that walks you through a number of shortcuts for Ableton’s software. (Via wire to the ear and Synthtopia; I agree with Synthtopia that the narration is a bit cheesy at moments, but yes, it’s still quite useful to have!)

I do find that video, while friendly, can be the least efficient way of getting at information. So here are the shortcuts in text form. These were also in Mac form, so I’ve provided Windows “translation”:

• Option-F11 (PC: F11 alone): Full screen mode
• Option-Cmd-B (PC: Ctrl-Alt-B): Open/close browser (and arrow keys scroll).
• Shift-TAB (PC: TAB alone): Switches between Arrange View and Session View (the linear track view and live performance-oriented clip view, respectively).
• Shift-SPACE: Starts/stops playback at the current playhead position; i.e., it’s a pause function. (SPACE alone starts at the beginning of the song.)
• Cmd-1,2,3,4 (PC: Ctrl-1,2,3,4): Adjusts the active quantization grid in current clips while editing. This one is really essential, of course.
• Cmd-arrow keys (PC: Ctrl-1,2,3,4): Controls Loop Region length. This really speeds up editing in a big way. Up/down uses a large increment (doubling/halving), whereas the right and left arrow keys use a small increment.
• Cmd-D (PC: Ctrl-D): Duplicate (and it duplicates everything, so it’s handy in Session View)
• Cmd-I (PC: Ctrl-I): Insert silence
• Cmd-B (PC: Ctrl-B): Draw Mode – essential for being able to switch between drawing and selection in clip piano roll, envelopes, etc.
• Shift-Cmd-I (PC: Ctrl-Cmd-I): Capture and Insert Scene. This cleans up your set by taking combinations and automatically inserting them in scenes.

(Okay, yeah, I sometimes call it the “Apple” key, but technically, that hasn’t been its name since the Apple II. Really. The sound of “open Apple – X” still makes me sigh with nostalgia, though.)

If you want all the keyboard shortcuts in Live, they’re in the Live manual. Choose Help > Read the Live Manual… and you’ll find it as the last chapter, chapter 28. But Infrasonik did a terrific job of picking out all the best ones, including some that even us old-hat Live users might have forgotten. (Yeah, I’ll admit is. I didn’t know about Capture and Insert Scene.)

Show those Canadian gurus some love:

Infrasonik

More Live Tutorials

Still want more Ableton Live knowledge? Oliver Chessler at Wire to the Ear has thoughtfully assembled a YouTube playlist of helpful Live tutorials. You may have seen some before, but it’s nice to have them all in one place. Because it’s a playlist, you can just scroll through via the player below. Enjoy:

And for still more Live wisdom, Ableton just posted an interview with Hot Chip in which they talk about how they use the tool. (Via Sonic State.)

My friend Ilia, aka Tonearm, has released his set of Windows XP-compatible shortcuts for Ableton Live. (Got to play out with Ilia last month and hope to do it again.) Ableton, if you’re listening, here’s another argument for more customization of the program.

Even if you’re not on XP, it’s worth having a look and even downloading the ZIP and readme for some inspiration as far as what could be possible with Live shortcuts.

Install the executable for Windows, and you get:

Keyboard assignments, including lots of handy shortcuts for manipulating clips on the fly, adjusting envelopes — everything you ought to be able to do. That includes changing gain, transposition, and BPM on the go (the last being especially nice)

• Single-key shortcuts: Those shortcuts can be manipulated with one key. Where a modifier is used, it’s “shift” — so you can use caps lock and get one-key access to those, as well.
• Mouse wheel and power zoom: Mouse wheel actions are contextual, so you can quickly scroll through the browser, session, plug-ins, etc.
• Faster navigation on the timeline: left, right, page up, page down and shuttle around your timeline, and you can nudge clips left and right using the keyboard. “Sticky-click” mode makes it easier to grab and manipulate selections on the timeline.
• Automation shortcuts
• Multiple takes
• Instant samplers: Grab a clip or a section of a clip and with one shortcut create a MIDI track and Simpler with that sample.

Multiple takes, more flexible keyboard assignments, and more direct access to clips — Ilia’s implementation here is a bit idiosyncratic, and it only works on XP, but it definitely overlaps with some of my wishlist. Live 8, perhaps?

(Note: I disagree with Ilia about Live on Vista. I’ve found Live on Vista can work exactly like Live on XP; if your experience isn’t that under SP1, odds are poor drivers are the problem. Prior to the various hotfixes of the last year, rolled into SP1, that’s another story, though.)

Thanks to Ilia for sending this in, and Ronnie at Rekkerd for reminding me.