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XLR

Ableton Blog

15 stories

Machinedrum: Planting Seeds

Ableton BlogMakersMachinedrum: Planting Seeds Machinedrum discusses BL00MS, a dancefloor-focused release shaped by an increasingly mobile Ableton and Note-based creative process. Free Live Set included.

Cinna Peyghamy: Tombak To The Future

Ableton BlogMakersCinna Peyghamy: Tombak To The Future Interview with percussionist and composer Cinna Peyghamy about how he made his album Music For Tombak & Synth in Ableton Live. Free Live Set included.

A Step-by-Step Guide for Creating Rhythmic Pads

Ableton BlogMakersA Step-by-Step Guide for Creating Rhythmic Pads Learn how to transform sustained pads into rhythmic patterns with volume automation.

Ital Tek: Chasing Accidents

Ableton BlogMakersItal Tek: Chasing Accidents Long-time Planet Mu artist Ital Tek on the making of his new album Mind Abandon and Ableton’s role. A free download includes synth loops and guitar samples.

A Step-by-Step Guide for Producing R&B Drums

Ableton BlogMakersA Step-by-Step Guide for Producing R&B Drums Learn how to produce, sequence, and mix R&B drums using MIDI programming, effects, bus processing, and more.

Sudan Archives: Vintage Strings, Modern Gadgets

Ableton BlogMakersSudan Archives: Vintage Strings, Modern Gadgets From vintage strings to modern gadgets, Sudan Archives discusses fiddle culture, and her creative process in the studio and on stage.

Sketch a Track in Note and Finish it in Live with LNA Does Audio Stuff

Ableton BlogMakersSketch a Track in Note and Finish it in Live with LNA Does Audio Stuff Watch LNA Does Audio Stuff sketch a track in Note, then arrange, polish, and finish it in Live.

Create Your First Track in Ableton Live with Bad Snacks

Ableton BlogMakersCreate Your First Track in Ableton Live with Bad Snacks Learn the fundamentals of Ableton Live in this eight-part beginner series hosted by artist and educator Bad Snacks.

Input / Output: Christopher Tignor

Ableton BlogMakersInput / Output: Christopher Tignor Violinist and composer Christopher Tignor shares his free Max for Live device, Five Finger Discount, which generates evolving melodies and polyrhythms.

Late Bush: Breaking and Remaking Baroque

Ableton BlogMakersLate Bush: Breaking and Remaking Baroque Operating as Late Bush, Pierre Dozin fuses early classical music with electronic sound design into unexpected shapes. Catch the interview and free download.

A Beginner’s Guide to Looping Guitar and Vocals

Ableton BlogMakersA Beginner’s Guide to Looping Guitar and Vocals Find out how to loop guitar and vocals with Looper, load effect racks, and customize your audio routing and MIDI mappings.

Horse Lords: Inside Their Microtonal Universe

Ableton BlogMakersHorse Lords: Inside Their Microtonal Universe Horse Lords’ Andrew Bernstein discusses how Ableton Live helps him to compose his band’s microtonal music and shares a number of free downloadable files.

Input / Output: Noémi Büchi

Ableton BlogMakersInput / Output: Noémi Büchi Noémi Büchi shares a full free Ableton Live Set download of a track from her latest album “Exuvie”.

A Beginner’s Guide to Generating Techno Drum Patterns

Ableton BlogMakersA Beginner’s Guide to Generating Techno Drum Patterns Learn how to generate techno drum patterns and fills with MIDI tools, Similarity Search, and more in this step-by-step video tutorial.

Input / Output: Galcher Lustwerk

Ableton BlogMakersInput / Output: Galcher Lustwerk Galcher Lustwerk, a fixture of the underground electronic scene, shares his Live Set template and talks about the production of his latest EP, Vestibule.

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About

XLR is a magazine, a radar and a diary about music gear and the making of music — for the people who make records and put on shows, wherever they do it.

The name is the three-pin connector that every signal in the business passes through: the microphone on stage and in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX cable that runs the lights. Studio, stage and lighting rig share it, and so does this magazine. Every few hours XLR collects what the makers shipped, what the reviewers heard, what the studios and the touring crews are doing, which producers and collectives are surfacing and what they are saying — synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lights, the rooms and the people — from a few hundred sources in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and more, then plots what is moving. The editor writes a letter every few days. Nothing is sold here; when a link leads to a shop, that is the maker's shop, not ours.