Stop the clip, and now we'll work on the bass riff using the Launchpad. Then play the drum clip while the song is playing to verify that this is the correct tempo. This song is played at 158 BPM (Beats Per Minute), so change the "120.00" button to 158.00. After the picture I'll give you the exact tempo for this song, but see if you can find the right tempo:
Click the Play button for this clip, and adjust the "120.00" button (near the top left of the Ableton screen) to change the tempo while you're listening to the actual song. In Ableton Live 11 the drum sounds are "Open HiHat" and "Closed HiHat." Near the top right corner of the picture you can see that the Draw Mode button (which looks like a pencil) is on, which makes it easy to draw in the drum beats. Double-click the first clip slot in track #1 so you can create a clip (like we did in Part One), and draw in the drum beats as in the picture below (showing the drum sounds for Ableton Live 10). The drum beat is very simple, and in the beginning of the song all you can hear is a closed Hihat and an open Hihat. Now the top part of your Ableton workspace should look something like this: Right-click the title bar of track #3 and change it to yellow (the first yellow in the first row of colors). In the Ableton Browser, click "Sounds" on the left and expand the Brass section, then drag "Brass-Soft Horns" onto the title bar of track #3. Then click the Create menu and click "Insert MIDI Track." This will create a third track. Since we're adding instruments (which need to go into MIDI tracks), right-click the title bars of the two Audio tracks and delete them. Drag "Basic FM House Bass" ("Analog Saw Bass" in Ableton Live 10 as in the picture below) onto the title bar of the second MIDI track (because it sounds similar to the bass guitar in the song), then right-click the title bar of the second MIDI track and change the color to blue (highlighted with a red rectangle in the picture below): Remember that you can zoom in your browser by pressing Ctrl+= a few times, and zoom out by pressing Ctrl+- a few times, and restore the normal zoom by pressing Ctrl+0:įor the bass, click Instruments on the left side of the Ableton Browser, then expand Instrument Rack, then expand the Bass section. Right-click the title bar of the first MIDI track and make it green (highlighted with a red rectangle in the picture below), just like we did in Part One. Therefore, we won't be too concerned with making an exact reproduction of the song.įor the drums, click Drums on the left side of the Ableton Browser, then drag "909 Core Kit" onto the title bar of the first MIDI track (any of the drum kits will do, I just happened to choose this one).
You can spend as much time as you want hunting for the perfect instrument, or changing the sound of an instrument to make it as faithful as possible to the original, but in this tutorial the focus is on learning more features of Ableton and the Launchpad.
Now let's add the instruments we'll need. We won't be using these features, and turning them off gives us more room on the screen. Let's start with a clean slate, so click the File menu in Ableton and then click "New Live Set." Remember to click the View menu and turn off Sends and In/Out. Click the link to listen to the official video of The Man, because the instruments don't sound too difficult to replicate in Ableton. In Part Three we're going to create our own version of the beginning of Feel It Still by Portugal.