Sara Landry: High-End Hard Techno

Sara Landry has got builders in. When our Zoom call begins, she immediately apologies for any background noise before making a quip about missing the opportunity to record the hammering and drilling. “I have a bunch of samples already,” the mid-20s Texan assures me. “Usually what happens is I end…

6d

Loop: 5 Perspectives on Creative Blocks

We’ve all been there: staring into the void of an empty Live Set, wondering where and how to begin. Or, pondering how in the world to get from that loose collection of ideas, loops, or melodies to a finished piece of music. The cold hard fact is, despite all the…

2w

Sydney Sounds: Sample the City

No two cities sound the same, and Happy Mag is collecting the idiosyncratic sounds of Sydney with their Sydney Sounds series of free sample packs for Live users. To create each pack, a local artist chooses a location, spends a day armed with field recording gear to capture the sounds…

3w

Free Live 11 Lite Upgrade for Lite Customers

The latest version of Ableton Live 11 Lite is out now. Live Lite is included in the purchase of a wide range of hardware products. Owners of any previous version of Live Lite can upgrade for free. This new version adds new and updated devices, more sounds, a higher scene…

3w

Kenny Beats: Connecting the D.O.T.S

When the late rapper and music producer Daniel Dumile (popularly known as MF DOOM) was asked how he combats writer’s block, his answer was simple: “The way that creativity works for me, it comes to you like an energy stream or something. It comes in waves. You’ve just got to…

Jun 2021

Extending Live: How Three Different Artists Approach Visuals for Live Performance

In a performance setting, visual expression can be just as vital to the show as the music itself. For performers who want full control over the audio and visual experience, Live can act as a bridge for both parts of the equation. While some users may already be familiar with…

Jun 2021

Rachel K Collier: Making A Musical Life Online

In 2020, the internet, already an essential medium for the communication of music, became completely indispensable, as the challenges of the pandemic descended upon society. With the widespread cancellation of gigs and events across vast swathes of the globe, making music for online audiences has become an increasingly pertinent topic…

Jun 2021

Kimbra: Expansion, Contraction, Improvisation

Back in 2016 at Loop, during a panel discussion on performance, Kimbra used the term "kink my think" to describe the process of putting a dent in the way you do things in order to grow as an artist, to push beyond normal patterns. Four years later, the worldwide kink…

Jun 2021

Resilience and Response: Staying Creative in Uncertain Times

Opportunities to create and share music together in a physical space have been acutely limited in recent times. While the personal challenges of the pandemic have manifested in different ways for all of us, many have experienced political unrest and drastic change in their everyday lives at the same time.…

May 2021

Breakbeat Chaos: Making Jungle with Session View and Push

While the functionality of Session View continues to improve, its fundamental purpose and feature set have remained mostly unchanged since the early days of Live. In his latest tutorial video, Ned Rush shares methods for setting up Session View for jamming that work in any version of Live, for any…

May 2021