by

Multiband Dynamics Ableton Download

Why do musical modders love Ableton Live? Simple, because you create your own effect unit racks. In this tutorial Gary Hiebner shows how to create a multiband distortion unit in Ableton Live.

Ableton Quick Tip: Multiband Frequency Splitter with Multi-band Dynamics. Actually owning a license, it feels great. Now I'm able to download all the packs from their website and make my experience feel more complete. I think this is actually better than going on holiday lol.

With all the latest electronic music genres, sounds are getting more and more processed and saturated. Take for example the Electro House, Dubstep and Moombahton artists. The great thing about these sounds are that they really punch through the mix. I kept finding I had to add distortion effect after distortion effect to my audio to make them compare with the latest releases. Then I came up with the ultimate solution. I built an Ableton Audio Effects Rack that I could easily copy to other instruments and sounds. On this Audio Rack I split up the frequency bands onto separate chains. I then applied varying forms of distortion and saturation to each frequency band. Let me show you how I created this Multiband Distortion Unit Rack. At the end you can find my Ableton Rack. Import this into Ableton and apply it to your tracks as well.


Step 1 ' Choose Your Source of Destruction

Start off by finding a synth sound you like. I have gone for the '˜Biig Saw Lead' preset (Instruments > Sampler > Synth Lead). This is a nice sounding Sawtooth synth source. I have tweaked the Filter section, I've have dropped the Res and enabled the Glide function. But you can use any synth sound as your source. Program in a MIDI pattern, and when you're ready, move onto the next step where we'll apply the distortion processing.



Step 2 ' Building Up the Audio Rack

Add an Audio Rack after the synth. Create three chains. I have labeled them Low, Mid, and High respectively. Each chain will deal with a specific frequency band. On the Low chain, add an EQ Eight. Assign band 1 to a Low Pass, set the Freq to 300 Hz, and the Q to 0.75. This will deal only with the frequencies under 300 Hz.


On the High chain do the opposite. Insert an EQ Eight. Assign a High Pass to band 1 with a Freq of 2.0 kHz

Multiband Dynamics Studio One

and a Q of 0.71. This chain will only deal with the high frequency range.


On the Mid chain, create a High pass of 300 Hz and a Low Pass of 2.00 kHz. The frequency range is now split up over these 3 chains. Now for the distortion and processing effects.


Step 3 ' Adding Some Processing

With the Frequency bands split up onto separate chains, I can now apply different forms of processing on each frequency band. My goal is to apply varying forms of distortion and saturation on each chain, and the end result will be a souped-up multi-band distortion effect unit.

Let's start with the Low Chain. After the EQ Eight, place an Overdrive plugin. My Center Frequency is 734 Hz with a Bandwidth of 5.10. Dial in a heavy dose of Drive. Mine is at 66% and the Tone is set at 76%. The Dynamics and Dry/Wet controls allow you to dial in how much of this effect you want to apply. I have set both to 50%.

After the Overdrive, I have added some extra drive through the Saturator plugin. I have kept the default preset pretty much the same, all I have done is increase the Drive to 5.71. Watch that your audio doesn't clip. If it does, pull the Output down. I have inserted the Glue Compressor afterwards to tame any peaks plus to add some of its coloring to the sound. I have used the Bass ' low extender preset.

Multiband dynamics ableton download free


Next up is to tackle the Mid Chain. I have done the same as I did with the Low Chain. I have inserted an Overdrive, Saturator and Glue Compressor. The Overdrive Center Frequency is 3.12 kHz and the Bandwidth 1.92. The Drive is at 51% and the Tone at 50%. I have used the Bass ' punch preset on the Glue Compressor. The other plugin settings are pretty much the same as the Low Chain. These subtle differences on the Overdrive unit, will add a different tonal character to the Mid Chain.


Onto the last chain, the High chain. First up is the Overdrive. The Center Frequency is set to 1.5 kHz, with a Bandwidth of 0.68, a Drive of 70% and a Tone o 78%. I have pushed the Dynamics and Dry/Wet up to 87% and 60% respectively.

Next up I have inserted a Redux plugin to downsample the sound. The Bit Reduction is at 12, and the Downsample is set to Soft at 3.41. And last is the Saturator. I have used similar settings to the other chains, except with a Drive of 18.9.


Take a listen to how these multiband distortion effects sound on your audio material. Tweak them if you need to as your sound may differ from mine.


Multiband Dynamics Plugin Studio One

Step 4 ' How to Use It on Other Synths and Sounds

The beauty with this Audio Rack, is that you can now save it to your User Library. Do this by clicking on the disk icon on the Audio Rack, and then it will be saved to your User Library.


You can now easily copy it to other tracks in the same project or use it in other projects. You'll definitely notice how it saturates your sound. As with the current EDM styles, these heavy-processed sounds are punchy, and have presence. When you bypass the Rack, you will notice what a difference it has made to the audio.

I have used the plugins that come with the standard version of Ableton, but you could also use the plugins that come with the Ableton Suite such as Amp and Cabinet, or even some of your 3rd party distortion plugins such as NI's Guitar Rig for further processing.

One more handy tip is to bring up the Macro menu and assign some of the parameters to the Macro buttons. This will make it easier to make adjust the parameters on the Audio Rack. Right-click on one of the Chain Volumes on the Audio Rack, then click Map to Macro. This will now assign this volume to a Macro. I have assigned my Low, Mid, and High chain volumes to Macros. This allows me to quickly adjust the volumes of the frequency bands.


Conclusion

Heavy processed sounds are all the rage now. So to keep up with the current sounds apply this Audio Rack multiband distortion unit to your audio sources. Once you have done it, you can very easily copy the Rack across to other tracks and projects. Try these processing tricks out in your future Ableton projects.

Here is my Live Pack of my Multiband Distortion Unit. Open this in Live and then drag any synth instrument before the Audio Rack.

Multiband Dynamics Ableton Download

Download the Multiband Distortion Unit Live Pack


Take a look at the following tutorials to get further techniques with Ableton:

Related Videos

multiband dynamics is a mainstay in many mixing toolkits because compression is not always appropriate or necessary across a whole signal - isolating separate bands is a powerful way to control the frequencies that need it & let the others remain natural. so why not other effects as well? I've made five effects racks that take advantage of this same principle for effects that are less trodden but every bit as useful.

Ableton Multiband Dynamics Ott Download

below you can read ideas about their use & listen to examples (in each, you'll hear the dry signal, the effect applied to all frequencies, & then the effect applied only to the top or bottom). if you'd rather just try them for yourself, download them all here. just keep in mind you'll need two free vst's as well, this saturator & this chorus. enjoy!

multiband saturation

multiband saturation is not a new idea - this is basically what an exciter does. but listen to the example & you'll hear exactly why it is important to be able to apply different amounts of distortion to different frequencies. when the effect is applied across the whole signal, it is far too dirty. when just the high end of the hammer is saturated, the attack becomes crisper & clearer. you can use this rack almost as an 'advanced dry/wet', maintaining elements of the original source while blending in the new.

keep in mind you'll need softube's excellent & free saturation knob for this rack to function.

multiband pan

multiband pan is a little more novel. with independent control of the high end & low end, your panning effects can become even trippier or cleaner than ever. have a listen to the example - the piano is desperate for movement, but when the pan is applied to the whole signal the attack gets lost loses clarity. with the same pan applied only to the low end, the attack remains sharp but the body still has the lovely rotary effect.

multiband chorus

just with the others, the goal here is to balance clarity & effect. it is sometimes appropriate to leave the top dry & spread the bottom & sometimes it is appropriate to spread the top & keep the bottom dry. experiment with different sound sources & see how you can push the effect harder than ever while keeping a very natural & balanced sound.

the backbone of this rack is the amazing & free TAL chorus-LX.

multiband reverb

it's pretty common to filter a reverb. this isn't so different from that in principle, but instead of a crude cut this rack will let you dial in perfect, independent settings for your highs & lows to avoid mud & add space. listen to the example - my percussion feels a little too dry, but after I apply reverb to the whole signal it becomes too messy. by isolating the highs, I can add space while maintaining the clarity down low.

multiband gate

a little more experimental, this will allow you to chop & change the dynamics of your high end while preserving the lows or vice-versa. you can imagine a scenario where you want your bass incredibly tight & gated so it will play nice with the other low frequencies of your mix but let the high end decay naturally. in the example, I'm using this rack to apply a haunting, reverse-sounding effect on my percussion while maintaining the punch of the low end.

Multiband Dynamics Vst Free

---------

Multiband Dynamics Ableton Download Windows

to download these racks, simply head over to the devices page.

if you find these useful, let me know o'er on the twitter//