AbletonClique

After several false starts following the purchase of Ableton Live 8 Suite and more Pro Tools problems than normal I decided to bite the bullet abd upgrade the mac, after reading sevral forums indicating stable systems of similar spec. I tried the install on my cleaned out macbook pro first and all looked good including Ableton and pro tools,so i brought the mac pro up to speed. It was friday so i left for a gig happy with the install.

Now i dont know what happened over the weekend in a locked studio but by monday morning i was on a full blown whitch hunt for hidden preferences and cache folders that got abondoned as snow leopard was abandoning ship. Not a single app would open on either computer bar browsers and system preferences and my macbook pro was now unable to drag items without them getting stuck to the cursor which fixing the problem quite a pain.

In the end the only solution was to enter recovery mode (cmd + r at startup) and format the system drive and install a clean version of lion without importing data from a previous backup.

Still waiting on a new Pro Tools dongle that as far as i knew i dont need anymore but Ableton is back and better than bofore so at least i can start mixing the projects that were stemmed at the end of the sessions. Expect a few tutorials on that :-)

J

Today we reached that point in the studio reboot where everything was set up perfectly but nothing was working as it was meant to, so one more day of buying software online as the internet decided to die and plenty of rewiring and the whole set up is now in mix mode.
Still heading to Xmusic in the morning to stock up on XY Insert cables and a new patch bay and maybe a (Guitar/Amp/Midi Controller/Snare/Cymbals/Ipad 2!!!) just so i don’t have to look at the back of the desk until we need to move it at which point i’ll go through and label everything that’s working then.

(Pics to follow once it’s all pretty, there’s even a camera in the corner and a U87 set up for tutorials whenever inspiration strikes :)

The list is endless and it’s the age old affliction of producers across the globe, Gear Acquisition Syndrome. It’s the strangest addiction, nothing is right before you have that bit of gear, then you get the beautiful new piece of kit and for a while everything is glorious…..until you notice that extra set of line outputs on the back of the preamp that would essentially let you never have to utter the word “latency” ever again.

That call of the wild that all us gearslutz feel is nothing more than our roots calling us back to analogue. never in my life did I think I would be saying this as a kid of the Ableton revolution but i am so glad I was brought up in recording studios because i have realized the potential of the two schools of recording in one system that i have seen hinted at but never the completed to the extent i have in my head.


CLIQUE RECORDINGS PRODUCTION WORKSHOPS


I am currently drawing up a potential syllabus for a course in Music Production rather than sound engineering or Software wizardry. 

It will be run by Myself and a few very talented friends and colleagues of mine who I’ve had the pleasure of working with 
Since I started officially as studio Tea boy age 13/14 in Kila’s project Studio as they set up for the Year long session that became “Luna Park” 
The Files went between several studios and i followed as much as i could on public transport (Too young to drive in ireland) including the illustrious Grouse Lodge, that taught me every production ideal that still holds true in my productions to date.

Since then I have been lucky enough to have continued honing my craft in the Kila studio and subsequently here at Clique Recordings. Over the past 7 years, running the studio as a project studio and a cheap way for our friends to record music and for us to learn everything we could about our questions regarding modern music production and how we thought it should be.


So far I’ve clocked: 
3 years of working as a pro tool operator for other Producers and Composers, 
2 years as guitarist in Irish Rock band Jody Has A Hit list, who garnered toured the UK extensively in every for of transport imaginable during my time with the band, 
there’s even a story about when the van broke down in a Blizzard.
All the way up to my current band We’re Wolves.

And several tours across the globe as Producer, Engineer, FOH and allround Sound Tech just being there to help the bands as they were producing some of my favorite music, including:
 
Kila, Bipolar Empire, The Upgrades, Red Enemy, Overhead, The Albatross, 
U2, The Hors lips, The Frames/The Swell Season, The Inishturk Beggars(The Brilliant Irish Flute, which went to No.1 on the Itunes World Music Chart), BLOF, 
Kevin Godley, Bressie, Republic of Loose, The Riptide Movement, Justin Manville, Portugal the Man, Home Star Runner, Drag The Atlantic, Color Me Pink, Oki, Juliette;s Rescue, She’ A Beauty, Kid Karate, Magdalene, New Secret Weapon, Gareth Dunlop, RAM’s Pocket Radio, Hero In Error, Preachers Son, Run Away Go, Liz Lawrence, Cars Love Girls, Mixing several films and more bands than I can remember. 
 
I was also a Pro Tools op and ast Producer on an Irish version of a show called the RAW SESSIONS, they got the idea right just not the time place or audience :)
I believe the one master take approach to recording like in sun studios, nashville except with all the benefits that technology being as cheap as it is afford us.

And that’s just me, wait till you hear what dave did when he was stuck for a few answers, that’s a blog in it’s self along with my approach to structure that lets you write all the parts that make your complete track in the time it takes your track to play.


We plan to offer a complete training environment here in Ireland that will be able to accommodate Musicians and Computer Musicians alike in a live studio environment with a video production team on hand to produce videos of the master takes. 
With the studio computer acting as the 2-TRACK TAPE MACHINE and nothing else leading to a completely new final product that will in my opinion become the standard form of music delivery in the coming year due to the copyright implications afoot in the US and the generals publics fondness for Youtube.

My modern production method incorporates digital and analogue in a way I believe many of the  older wave of producers have been grab hold of as the computer has always been a foreign Intruder to the studio Environment.

The Computer is a unique tool that can become whatever you require it to be, 
the moment you treat it as more than that is the moment your music loses the life it had when you left the studio with everyone smiling. 
A computer can be any instrument you want to design in your head. 
My view of modern production treats the computer as nothing more than a tool and focuses on the old school analogue recording techniques and helping you find your unique form of sound and music production that makes your work sound like you.
Potentially we will be offering bootcamps in Dance Production, Ambient and Electronica Production, Acoustic Recording and Modern Music Production.
The course will be taught by Grouse Lodge House Producers,STC Graduates and Members of the Clique Recordings Extended Family with guest lecturers from Dubspot in New York, Film and TV Composers from Ireland and Abroad and a whole heap more these are just the ones i can think of.

The main DAWs taught will be Ableton Live,Pro Tools, Logic and Maybe Cubase/Nuendo but any software knowledge will be the same as the idea is you should be able to walk into any recording environment look around, have a cup of tea and sit down to work without having to rip the place apart to find where the speakers are plugged in. We are midi experts and can help you map any software to do the same things your controllers are telling them in every environment.

I Just cracked the networking here in the studio after 2 days straight of every configuration under the sun to find the setup that gave the most midi stability yet still let us go on the net for dropbox etc. I will really be going into how to connect everything to everything, freeing you of the limitations placed in from of us by computers.

Having a computer then also becomes irrelevant. if you wish to produce your music on another medium like an MPC or 8track or tape machine if you can get your hands on one still but are looking for ways to expand your productions, this is for you. if you have no knowledge of recording but have lots of it in your head dying to get out, this is for you. Its getting back to bouncing the ideas to tape while they fresh and hot.
I’ve been complaining about the lack of good music production education in ireland since i had to go to college so here is my solution :)

If I get the space sorted for this course the lesson plan should be finished within the month so if you are Irish or don’t mind being Irish for a week or two and would be Interested in attending a Part-Time Course in music production over the next few months please register your interest at Jason13ie@gmail.com
 I believe that the way forward is drawing on our past more than ever.

Tonight I spent the night tapping away on the cheap Elonex 10 tablet that I bought for chrisrmas telling myself I’d find a use for it, racking my brains for a use for it now that the studio was up and running in V2.0, Ableton Suite 8 running like a dream on the cleaned out computer, and frankly until i get to the shop which isn’t even open yet, there’s nothing else to do until everyone wakes up.

This is what ive found: http://opensoundcontrol.org/multiple-user-shared-musical-control Which told me I’m not the first person to try this which is always a relief. Within 2 google searches I was reminded of 3 apps i already have on my iphone, 2 Ive tried already and one i use evert day: AUTOMAP, Computer to computer wifi/ethernet Touch DAW, which I’ve never gotten to work in the studio OSC A combination of a simple mouse pad app and Track Master which about 1.99 from the App Store right on you mac desktop and basically turns what ever mouse you have into an xy pad! Even has multitouch on newer macbooks.

And of course all of these brought me to basically creating lots of templates that i feel make my controllers feel more like an extension of the analogue studio. And the best part is how great they look alongside the mixing board.

I know a few more old school engineers who I’ve learned alot from so i can’t wqit to see how they addapt to the system

After about five minutes of tapping i reinstalled OSC its basic presets were exactly what i wanted our phones and fake Ipad to do,send midi from oter rooms.

Hi There,
I’m Jay and I Produce music here at Clique Recordings in Ireland.
Thie Blog is going to follow our Explorations in using Ableton Live as our main Production System in a busy Music and Post Production Studio Environment.

Our Set up is simple but good, and it has taken us years to get to this point, Dave the co-author of this Blog even went to Dubspot in New York to help us better understand every element of Ableton Live so as to feel comfortable in using it on our Master Computer.

The Set-Up:

Loads of nice and not so nice mics(more on these in the following blogs and tutorials)
In a good sounding Live room with moveable acoustic treatment to obtain a wide variety of sounds from the space. and a 16x4 Stage Box to bring the mics from the main Live room to the Control Room.

In the control room we have a load of specifically designed treatment to provide and even listening environment and several monitor set ups to provide to most comprehensive image of the sounds we are making as possible.
(all switched through our BIG KNOB)

 The Speakers Include:
-ADAM S2X (Pair) Clearest Speakers I have had the Pleasure of working with.
-ADAM Sub10 (Just for when you need it)
-Random Speakers we picked up at a closing down sale that make a mix sound like music.
-YAMAHA NS-10s (I don’t care what you say, these are what makes it possible for engineers to swap studios and achieve similar results,period.)
-Range of headphones to monitor our Stereo Buss,( and 4 aux mixes for live tracking through our ALLEN&HEATH GL2400 Mixing Desk providing 4 separate mixes to up to 16 musicians)
-TV Speakers (tried and tested method for program music, it has to sound good on these more than the others)

Adding to that a range of simple outboard that we have built up over the years, including The Rooster by Thermionic Culture and The COMP-R22 by JDK Audio and many others, all combined with the routing power of the desk all finally enable us to Pint stereo Stems of the Live takes as the happen in the Live Room and the FX as we mix them in the control run giving us a track close to mix down by the end of a Session day.

We have just put the finishing touchestou our first incarnation of this system with ABLETON Live 8.2.7 Suite as our master.
Expect regular video updates, pictures, blog posts,tutorials in production with ableton not in ableton and most Importantly some great new music and hopefully some videos too :) 

If you’ve got any questions about anything production wise throw them our way and we’ll see what we can do for you :)

Cheers @Jproducerclique