Day in, day out, a lot of producers spend a lot of time editing in Ableton Live. Here’s a free tool that automates some common tasks so you can work more quickly – easing some FL Studio envy in the process.
This one comes to us from Madeleine Bloom’s terrific Sonic Bloom, the best destination for resources on learning and using Ableton Live. Live Enhancement Suite is Windows-only for the moment, but a Mac version is coming soon.
The basic idea is, LES adds shortcuts for producers, and some custom features (like sane drawing) you might expect from other tools:
Add devices (like your favorite plug-ins) using a customizable pop-up menu of your favorites (with a double right-click)
Draw notes easily with the ~ key in Piano Roll.
Pop up a shortcut menu with scales in Piano Roll
Add locators (right shift + L) at the cursor
Pan with your mouse, not just the keyboard (via the middle mouse button, so you’ll need a three-button mouse for this one)
Save multiple versions (a feature FL Studio users know well)
Ctrl-shift-Z to redo
Alt-E to view envelope mode in piano roll
And there’s more customizations and multi-monitor support, too.
Ableton are gradually addressing long-running user requests to make editing easier; Live 10.1 builds on the work of Live 10. Case in point: 10.1 finally lets you solo a selected track (mentioned in the video as previously requiring one of these shortcuts). But it’s likewise nice to see users add in what’s missing.
Oh, and… you’re totally allowed to call it “Ableton.” People regularly refer to cars by the make rather than the model. We know what you mean.
Here’s a video walking through these tools and the creator Dylan Tallchief’s approach:
More info:
LES Collaborators:
Inverted Silence: https://soundcloud.com/invertedsilence
Aevi: https://twitter.com/aevitunes
Sylvian: https://sylvian.co/https://www.patreon.com/dylantallchief
https://www.twitter.com/dylantallchief
https://soundcloud.com/dylantallchief
https://facebook.com/dylantallchief
https://www.twitch.tv/dylantallchief
Give it a go – will try to check in when there’s a Mac version.
PS, Windows users will want to check out the excellent open source AutoHotkey for automation, generally.