CERTIFIABLY ABLETON
HOW TO USE PADS FOR SMOOTH TRANSITIONS | Matt McCoy
I know what it feels like to play through a worship
set that has awkward transitions between
songs. It’s a very uncomfortable feeling where
time seems to stand still. Five seconds can feel
like an eternity. You put your head down and try
to look like nothing happened, hoping to avoid
eye contact with anyone in the congregation.
Awkward transitions can be caused by going
from a fast song into a slower song, not ending
the song correctly, abrupt key changes, or
having too long of an intro to the click track
before the next song actually starts. These
are all very common in any worship setting
that I’ve led in. Fortunately, there is a very
simple trick that can be used to avoid these
have to do is press play. If you want to be more
Anytime there spontaneous, in Session View you can add a
is an awkward Then you can start the pad by playing the clip
pad audio file to a new track on its’ own scene.
itself, instead of the whole scene. Be sure you
transition, it can
draw too much
attention to the
band and kill the
change the clip Launch Mode to “Toggle”. This
way, your tracks will keep playing, but your pad
will start / stop playing when you click on it.
There are many ways to plays pads in Ableton
Live, but these are just a few ideas.
HOW I USE PADS IN WORSHIP
When building a worship set, I try to create
smooth transitions by first arranging my songs
moment.
in similar keys. I then use pads to act as the
awkward moments.
glue between the songs. However, I know it’s
not always possible to play songs in the same
WHY USE AMBIENT PADS worship, I would start by first trying out a free or similar keys. In these cases, as the first song
If there is any music setting that can benefit the app called Prime that is designed to play pads. is ending, I start slowly fading in a pad in the
most from smooth song transitions, worship You’re able to load in your pad sounds, create new key that my next song is in. When the next
is it. When leading worship, we don’t want to a setlist with crossfade transitions, set a timer song starts, I begin to fade out the pad. This
distract from the moment. Our goal is to create on the pad and more. You can simply connect works every time. There’s never a reason to
a space where people can worship and focus your device to your sound system using a have awkward dead-space again, unless it’s
on God, not on the band. Anytime there is headphone cable and direct box and play intentional. And sometimes quiet moments can
an awkward transition, it can draw too much along with the pads. You can also use a click be very effective.
attention to the band and kill the moment. along with the pad if you want to use the pad Pads are a great way to connect your songs as a background element to a song. Another WHERE TO GET PADS
together. They fill the empty gap and quiet option is to play the pad files from the music There are many different places you can
space between songs. Pads can be played by player on your device. If you want even more download ambient pads for worship. Loop
a real keyboard player, but a lot of churches advanced customization, I would recommend Community has many different pad bundles
don’t have a person that can play pads live. using Ableton Live to arrange your setlist. available for purchase. You can also make
your own if you have Ableton Live and are
In this case, you can use ambient drone pads.
These are mp3 or WAV files that play multiple HOW TO USE PADS IN ABLETON LIVE familiar
notes or chords in the same key. Some pads If you’re already using Ableton Live for tracks, For the month of June, Loop Community is
have a lot of movement to them, and some adding pads to your setlist is simple. You can giving away a completely free ambient pad for
are very simple. They are perfect for worship drag the pad audio files onto the timeline and set worship. This is a perfect way to get started.
transitions because they can play between start and end times for the pad. For example, as Download it here.
songs to eliminate all awkward silence. If they your song is ending, you can start fading in the are used right, no one will even notice the pad. Then you can fade out the pad once your transition - which is exactly what you want. next song has started. The slower the fade, the
less obvious it will be. By pre-programming the
EASY WAYS TO START USING PADS pads and fades in Arrangement View, you can
If you’re brand new to using tracks or pads in make your transitions perfect every time. All you
186
June 2019
with
recording
MIDI
instruments.
Matt McCoy
Matt is a worship leader and songwriter from
Chicago. He is the founder of LoopCommunity.com
and an Ableton Certified Trainer.
LoopCommunity.com
Subscribe for Free...