There’s nothing like a killer chord progression - but if you don’t have a music theory background, you might feel a bit lost when it comes to making one. In this post, we’ll look at a few ways to make catchy chords and progressions in Live, including some simple theory education, free Racks to help you, and a look at Push’s scale mode.
.Ableton users: If you cannot find your plugins, they may be in the wrong location. Mac users with Ableton. After installing Captain Plugins to your computer: Go to Ableton Preferences File/Folder (this pane is called ‘Plugins’ in 10.1 and higher). Use them simultaneously and export your finished work to almost any DAW, including Ableton Live and FL Studio. Captain Plugins 2.0 for Windows includes Captain Chords, Captain Deep, and Captain Play, while the Mac version gives you all of these, plus Captain Melody. If you already own Captain Chords 1.0 or Odesi Software, the upgrade is free.
Before we get going, let’s pause to enjoy the beauty of a relatively simple and repetitive chord progression, in Derrick May’s classic “Strings of Life”:
Major, Minor, and Dominant - 7th Chords
To start with, let’s look at 7th chords, a critical element in many chord progressions. In the videos below, Dubspot instructor Max Wild reviews making these chords and moving between them:
Major 7th chords.
Minor 7th chords.
- Apr 29, 2019 Pierre, as long as you get your MIDI controller to communicate with Ableton, then Captain is just a matter of dropping it on a MIDI channel, and arm the track. For your MIDI controller setup with Ableton, check their website.
- Dec 05, 2017 Captain Chords: In depth tutorial on how to write your own Chord Progressions in Ableton Live. Ableton live tutorial - chords and music theory - Duration: 24:17.
Dominant 7th chords.
Rack it Up
How To Install Ableton Pack
If you’re looking for another way to play through some chords, there are a few MIDI Effects Racks available to get you on your way. For a series of tweakable chord progressions for each key, try 8bitBandit’s Holy Scale. AudioBombs’ Deep House Chords rack includes a set of switchable chords best suited to Deep House music. Finally, Certified Trainer Yeuda Ben-Atar aka SideBrain has a set of racks for generating minor and major chords, with control for each harmonic added.
Flip It
Captain Chords Ableton Mac How To Install Free
Another great technique for getting the most out of chords is to invert them - essentially, take an existing chord that you’ve played, then invert the note order from lowest to highest. For more on the theory behind inverted chords, and to hear some examples, see this article in AskAudio Magazine.
As of Live 9, you can also invert MIDI with the click of a button in a Clip - learn more about MIDI Clip editing tools.
Push the Melody
If you want to get your hands dirty playing chords, try the scale mode on Push. With every key guaranteed to be within your selected scale, you can’t go wrong. But how should you look at the chords you’re making? Here’s a couple of tutorials to answer that:
Christopher Willits looks at “harmonic triangles” with Push.
Cats and Beats demonstrates basic chord progressions with Push.
Hopefully, by now you’ve got some inspiration to make chords of your own. If you’ve got some special chord Racks or sound to share with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ - and don’t forget to use #MadeWithLive and #MadeWithPush.
- Latest Version:Ableton Live 10.1.9 LATEST
- Requirements:Mac OS X 10.11 or later
- Author / Product:Ableton Team / Ableton Live for Mac
- Old Versions:
- Filename:ableton_live_trial_10.1.9_64.dmg
- Details:Ableton Live for Mac 2020 full offline installer setup for Mac
Ableton Live for Mac is software for creating musical ideas, turning them into finished songs, and even taking them onto the stage. With two views - the classic Arrangement View, where musical ideas are laid out along a timeline, and the unique Session View, where you can improvise and quickly experiment with musical ideas - Ableton Live for macOS is a fast, fun, intuitive way to make music. Ableton Live comes in three editions: Intro, Standard and Suite. The editions share common features, but Standard and Suite have additional features, Instruments, Packs, and Effects.
Features and Highlights
Create
No matter how you start your music, Live offers a workflow that will help you get going. Record audio or MIDI from any source. Mix and match loops and samples from any tempo. Work with a huge range of included sounds, instruments, and effects.
Finish
Live helps you get from a collection of musical ideas to a finished song. With extensive editing workflows, great sounding EQs and compressors, great looking meters and waveforms, and fast, flexible exporting options, Live gives you everything you need to get music done.
Perform
Take your music out of the studio and onto the stage, with Live’s powerful performance workflows. Since Live handles keeping everything in time, you can play hardware or software instruments, trigger loops, process audio from other musicians, and focus on making music.
Extend
Get more sounds, add controllers, or customize almost everything about how Live works. Access dozens of add-on Packs from Ableton or thousands of community-built Max for Live instruments, effects, and more. Use any MIDI hardware to get hands on with Live.
Note: 30-day trial version. Limitation (saving and exporting are disabled).
Also Available: Download Ableton Live for Windows
Features and Highlights
Create
No matter how you start your music, Live offers a workflow that will help you get going. Record audio or MIDI from any source. Mix and match loops and samples from any tempo. Work with a huge range of included sounds, instruments, and effects.
Finish
Live helps you get from a collection of musical ideas to a finished song. With extensive editing workflows, great sounding EQs and compressors, great looking meters and waveforms, and fast, flexible exporting options, Live gives you everything you need to get music done.
Perform
Take your music out of the studio and onto the stage, with Live’s powerful performance workflows. Since Live handles keeping everything in time, you can play hardware or software instruments, trigger loops, process audio from other musicians, and focus on making music.
Extend
Get more sounds, add controllers, or customize almost everything about how Live works. Access dozens of add-on Packs from Ableton or thousands of community-built Max for Live instruments, effects, and more. Use any MIDI hardware to get hands on with Live.
Note: 30-day trial version. Limitation (saving and exporting are disabled).
Also Available: Download Ableton Live for Windows