Ableton Live : Separating Your Bass and Kick

Many people have no problem learning the basics of Ableton Live, but soon give up because their tracks don't sound 'as good as some of the tracks out there'.  I think this is commonly caused by a lack of specifics on the many sounds.  In other words, they do not put their sounds into the song ON PURPOSE.

I think this requires talent, this forces you to think of the sounds you want to achieve, without just experimenting.  Sometimes experimenting with different things is good, but thinking of sounds (and being able to duplicate in ableton) will allow you to complete songs without encountering producers block.

Onto the topic, separating your bass from your Kick.

There are 3 main ways to do this.

1. Add a sidechained Compressor

2. Add a filtered and sidechained compressor

3. Add a sidechained Gate

4. Clip envelopes

You'll notice these are all 'sidechained', or linked to another track. The side chain option on a filter will allow you to link with another track via a side chain. This can perform an effect at a certain level for a different track along with many other options. Lets take a look at the options presented.

1 & 3. The sidechain compressor option will compress the audio on the existing track whenever the sidechained track (kick drum in this case) exceeds a certain volume level. This, along with the sidechained gate, tends to create a pumping effect on your bassline. To do eithr of these click the down arrow next the clip options (click the channel), and select the sidechain option. Select the channel you wish to sidechain with.

2. This option applies a specific filter when the compressor level is reached. This will let you only filter out a certain frequency (low) when another track hits. The high sounds of your bass will still be heard.

4. Envelopes allow you to modify a sound over time. Click on a specific clip and select the E bottom on the bottom left. This will let you view your envelopes. Select volume level and enter draw mode to modify this clip. Drop the audio at each 1/4 note to emphasize a 1/4 note steady kick.

TIP!: If you have more than one kick you can feed them into a separate audio channel and sidechain your bass to that channel to incorporate them both.  You can also feed your bass and your overall kick channel into yet another audio channel to apply audio effects to all bass noises.

Try to play around with each of your options to determine which effect sounds best. It might even be a mix of effects that sound the best.