CERTIFIABLY ABLETON
DON’T LET TRACKS CONTROL YOU | Matt McCoy
When talking with worship leaders about the a timeline from left to right. This view looks like up your tracks in smaller audio files for each
benefits of using tracks in worship, the most standard music software - like GarageBand section of your song. This is easily done in
common question I hear is “but what if I want or Logic. In Arrangement View, you can add Arrangement View and then you can export the
to be spontaneous and flow?” “Locators”, which are best to think of as song audio files or drag and drop them into Session
section markers. You can name these “Verse” View. Once you have your track audio files or
I get it. As a worship leader, I know there are or “Chorus” and drag them to the correct loops in Session View, you can press play /
times when you might want to sing another position in your track arrangement. Now this is launch on each row (Ableton Live calls these
unplanned chorus or bridge, or maybe even where the beauty happens. Ableton Live uses “Scenes”) to play every audio clip in that row.
sing a song that wasn’t in your setlist to begin something called quantization when playing Ableton Live will wait one bar to start playing
with. The last thing we want is to be trapped audio. This means that when you click on the the next scene or audio clip. In Session View,
as if we’re singing along to a karaoke track. It’s “Chorus” locator, it will wait until the next down the creative possibilities are endless because
also important that we don’t allow technology beat to start playing the Chorus. If you want you can create layers by stacking audio files.
to distract us from what we’re there to do - to jump to another section of the song while lead worship. Music technology & gear should you’re playing, simply click on your desired If you want to control the tracks using keyboard
be used to enhance and assist us in leading locator and on the next down beat, Ableton shortcuts, click on the “Key” button in the
worship, not dictate it. Live will jump in time to that part of the track. top right corner. Anything on the screen that
is orange can be mapped to a key on your
Track technology has come a long way since I
started leading worship almost 20 years ago.
When I first started using tracks in worship, we
used a stereo mp3 file with the click panned to
the left side and the track panned to the right
side. I’d have the drummer press play on the
iPod and then we’d have to hang on tight for
the ride. No deviation was allowed. We had
to play along with the mp3 or train wreck. If I
wanted to sing another chorus, we’d have to
do it without the track at the end of the song.
When I first discovered Ableton Live in 2004,
my mind was blown. The possibilities seemed
endless. I could bring in tracks and customize
the arrangements, loop song sections and even
use a foot controller to control the tracks as a
computer keyboard. This means you can
Music
have song one mapped to the “1” key on your
keyboard, or the chorus section marker or
technology & scene mapped to the “C” key. Another great
gear should be using a Looptimus foot controller (looptimus.
used to enhance
and assist us in
leading worship,
not dictate it.
way to control the tracks hands free is by
com). Click on the “MIDI” button in the top
right corner of Ableton Live. Anything you see
that turns blue can be mapped to a button
on a MIDI controller. Looptimus is perfect
because it’s a foot controller that gives you 6
buttons per song. You can map each button to
a different section of the song, which will give
you complete, hands-free control of your tracks
while you lead.
If you’re not ready yet to jump into Ableton
guitar player, instead of the tracks controlling Live, I would suggest trying out Prime by Loop
me! I could finally view my computer as an Community. It’s a completely free Mac & iOS
instrument I could play, instead of something I Another method for being spontaneous is by app that makes it easy to run tracks, customize
played along with. using Session View. This is the view that looks arrangements and be spontaneous. Watch my
a little like Microsoft Excel - a grid of rows and free class at TracksinWorship.com
So how do we accomplish this? There are a columns. In each blank slot, you can drop an
few methods in Ableton Live you can use to be audio file. Think of each row in Session View is
spontaneous with tracks. The first is by running an individual song section (Verse, Chorus, etc.).
your tracks in Arrangement View. This is the If you use individual 4 or 8 bar loops, you can
view that lines up your tracks horizontally down stack them in session view or you can break
160
March 2019
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
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