Introduction
Ableton Live 12’s Simpler instrument is one of my favourite sampler plugins because of how simple it is to load and play back audio files and turn simple recordings into fully fledged instruments.
Simpler is available in all versions of Ableton Live and all you will need for this tutorial is a few samples of instruments that are playing one note. This can be any instrument you’d like and these samples can be found in sample packs you can find on websites such as Splice, Noiiz, Loopmasters and many more, where you can purchase sample packs and some of these packs will come with one-shot samples.
You can also record your own one-shot samples using; your built-in microphone on your computer, an audio interface and a studio microphone or just simply recording something on your phone and transferring the audio file onto your computer.
Finding the right sample
One-shot samples are an audio file that contains an instrument or drum recording playing one note. For example the sound of playing one key on a piano or singing one note and recording it.
To get a good one-shot sample it’s best to try and record a long audio file of your chosen instrument. For example recording the sound of a guitar playing one note and letting the note ring out and fade away before stopping the recording.
Good length
Too Short
It’s also important to make sure there are no other instruments playing at the same time in the recording or any background noises as this will make the process of getting a good instrument harder.
Master Ableton Live 12
Electronic Music Production Course
Course Difficulty
Beginner
The Method
Let’s look at how we can use simpler to sample some instruments:
1. Load Simpler
Start by loading in an empty simpler plugin onto a MIDI track from the instruments folder in the browser.
2. Load your audio file
Now load your one-shot audio file into the simpler plugin by dropping your sample into the black window that says “drop sample here”.
You can do this by opening up your documents browser on your computer and dragging the audio file fro m there into simpler. You can also use the places section to do this too if you have a folder created.
3. Normalise Volume
Right click on the background of your audio file and choose the normalise Volumes option. This will make sure your sample is set to the loudest volume is can be without clipping and will lead to a better sounding instrument.
4. Start and End Markers
Now we can use the start and end markers, the small flag icons to alter our start and end points if needed.
4a. Remove Gaps
If you have any silence a the beginning of your audio file then it’s best to cut this out.
4b. Select Notes
If you are using a recording with multiples notes being played in a sequence then you can also use these to select a specific note too.
5. Classic Mode
Now we want to change the mode of simpler from 1-shot to Classic. This will make the sampler react to the length of your programmed notes and it will allow us to play multiple notes at the same time.
You can control the number of notes that can be played at the same time using the voices option.
6. Tuning
Most importantly we need to make sure to tune our sample, because samplers will automatically set the original pitch of the sample to C3 even though it might not be the same.
6a. Load tuner
Load in the tuner audio effect after our simpler instrument from the audio effects folder in the browser.
6b. Create a MIDI Clip
Programme a midi clip with a note of C and start playing that clip.
6c. Check the tuner
Go back to the device view to look at the tuner. The tuner should start to show what note is being played from our instrument.
If this note is not C and not in the center of the tuner then we need to adjust the tuning to get it in tune.
6d. Controls Tab
In simpler, head into the controls tab in the top right and look at the Transp and Detune controls.
6e. Detune
If the tuner says the note is not in tune, for example A -13ct means the note being played is 13 cents lower than it should be. Then we would input the opposite of this number into the detune control, which would be +13 ct.
The tuner should now show the note is very close if not perfectly in tune.
6f. Transposition
Now we need to change the transp control to pitch the sample up and down until the note name in the middle also reads C like our programmed note.
You can go up or down to reach the target note of C but try to take the shortest path there. For example if our tuner reads B, then it’s much easier to transpose up by 1 semitone to C than go down by -11.
If done correctly your tuner should now display the note of C and now your instrument is in tune, which is very important to make sure what you are programming is the same as what is being played.
Next Steps
With this technique you can now experiment with some of the other features included in simpler such as the filter, envelopes and modulation capabilities. Try this out on some other instruments too and play around with the start markers to get some interesting new and unique sounds for your music.
For more details, check out our 2 part Youtube series below to learn how to Master Simpler.
