The new LIVE 8 Groove Engine

The ability to easily extract timing from audio or midi material and create templates takes quantization to a new level. Not only can we now transfer real live feel to alter machine grooves, but this also will make it easier to tighten up just about anything in our set for a cleaner sound, thus adding a new level of control to electronic music making.. so instead of correcting a live performance to a quantization grid, we can use a groove pattern to brake evenness in a controlled way and add a less repetitive ‘live’ feel.

For starters this is a very significant development for people that like to layer

drum loops: mixing and matching beats just became a lot easier. no more time consuming nudging to eliminate flams of kicks and snares.. competing grooves can be unified in seconds for a tighter and more transparent sound.

Load several loops of different styles and tempos....

choose from one of the many preset grooves

from library and drag drop onto the clips you would like to sync up..

or commit them to the audio or midi parts to activate warp markers and midi note offsets.

this all can be done in real time !

Of course we could also do this successfully with many other musical parts such as percussion, bass lines, sequenced synths or any other rhythmic audio or midi clip.

Extracting Grooves from audio or midi let’s you tap into the performances of great

drummers or store your favorite

midi grooves for future use..

to create your own library.

Grooves templates can also be viewed and edited with the grid as a part of a midi clip.. instruments that follow the groove can then easily be added.

Instead of drag dropping groove patterns directly onto clips you can also add them to to Groove Pool by double clicking on a selection in the Browser.

Here you can adjust a variety of parameters controlling the action of the ‘grooves’

Base: timing resolution

Quantize: pre-quantize before applying groove

Timing: how much the groove affects the clips

Random: adds a random timing fluctuation

Velocity: the groove file also contains velocity information!

Amount: scale the overall intensity of Timing, Random and Velocity

Groove patterns can be called up on the fly to explore

different approaches of quantization in a non-destructive

way..to do that set the groove’s Timing,Random and Velocity

amounts to 0% and adjust it’s Quantize and Base parameters.

With only Quantize applied the actual content of the groove is

ignored.

ALL IN ALL IT LOOKS LIKE ABLETON LIVE IS BREAKING NEW GROUND AGAIN...

by Heinrich Zwahlen