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Converting a drum recording or sample automatically distinguishes between the kick, snare and hi-hat, and maps the MIDI notes accordingly. There are three right-click commands for drums, melody and harmony. It's not a new idea it's been knocking about in various forms for years, and Cubase recently introduced a strong implementation in version 6.
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The big breakthrough for us is the new Audio-to-MIDI conversion function. When we tried the new features, it quickly became clear that Ableton has lost none of its flair for innovation. At first glance, details about Live 9 seemed to be less exciting, with a list of new features that mostly seem to improve workflow. Much of Ableton's energies have gone towards developing its Push hardware controller (£429 inc VAT, from Judging by the online videos, the Push controller raises the bar yet again for using Live as a performance tool. It's been three years since Live 8, so it seems fair to expect big things from this update. This also makes Ableton Live a phenomenal performance tool, allowing musicians to take to the stage with a finished mix that they can then rearrange and alter.Ībleton Live 9's updated effects work and sound better than ever Its Session View dispenses with the conventional timeline approach to arrangement, chopping recordings into loops and recombining them on the fly. Its Audio Warp functions, for example, are the sonic equivalent of Play-Doh, re-timing and pitching recordings with a dexterity that other recording software has yet to match. A lot of pop music sounds neither electronic nor acoustic, but a hybrid that comes from recording real instruments and editing and manipulating them almost beyond recognition.Ībleton Live has long been the favourite music production software of DJs and producers because of the way it combines MIDI editing and arrangement with audio clips. The same thing has happened to the other instruments in the mix too.
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Computer-manipulated vocals are everywhere, not just keeping singers in tune but also pushing the voice in unexpected directions. However, if there's one genre-defining sound for our time, it's the computer. Since the turn of the millennium there hasn't been a significant new instrument type, which perhaps explains why guitar bands have become mainstream once again. In the nineties, the sampler reigned supreme. Eighties pop was dominated by analogue synths and drum machines. Pop music has always been heavily influenced by technology.
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