Auto Gain in Ableton

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
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Auto Gain in Ableton

Hi guys.

I am trying to see if there is a way to set an auto gain in Ableton for Live Performance/DJ’ing, near enough exactly like how Traktor does it.

I’ve done a bit of research and some are saying limiters, compressors etc…but…hmm…not sure.

Any suggestions?

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Compressors

Ableton doesn’t have an auto gain feature like Traktor, to my knowledge.

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What i do , is put a limiter in each channel of audio & in the master . You could give yourself a bit of headroom this way . When assigning volume faders to a controller , go in the midi tab (where all your midi mapping is) and look for the volume fader . Your gonna see 6.0db, bring it down to 0db . This way , even if you slam your fader all the way up , you wont distort (go in the red). What i do is put a saturator on each tracks as well . Makes the sound a bit more «warm».

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On my APC40, I’ve MIDI-mapped my first four faders to the volume of the track with a range of negative infinity to 0dB. My master volume fader is mapped to the master channel’s volume and has the range of negative infinity to +3dB. Like the previous suggestions, I’ve got compressors, utilities, and limiters where appropriate.

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@duel link…thanks for the post links!

@moss2626…that sounds like a good idea…i’ll give that a try.

@onimode…thanks man, care to give a few details as to where YOU feel is appropriate to have a limiter and so on? :slight_smile:

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Oh my god…the advice in this thread is terrible. Absolutely terrible. I don’t understand how you guys can’t hear how bad you’re making Ableton sound.

If you want to do it right, read this: http://tarekith.com/assets/DigitalLevels.html

For those that don’t care to read:

  • Dance music is already insanely compressed. Don’t add more limiting if you don’t have to. All you’re doing is killing music.
  • Your master fader in Ableton should never be set anywhere but at 0dB.
  • You should never clip in the digital realm. Channel meters reading over 0dB is okay for a while if you’re mixing internally, but never let your master get anywhere near 0dB. Peaking at -3dB is better in every way.

The only good advice I’ve read here so far is that you should reset your midi mappings so your faders top out at 0dB instead of +6. Yeah…do that. Or put a Utility plugin on each channel as the first device and apply -6dB of gain…that way you get to use the scrolling features of the APC someone mentioned if you want to.

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Like I said, the devices are only where appropriate in my live set. The only compressor in my live set is on a send track and is sidechained to a kick drum that place every beat. I have utilities in place so my sends don’t add to the master signal, as well as help me fade between dry and wet signal of my “deck” tracks, since I have the same audio routed to both sides of the crossfader. I only have limiters in two places, on the master channel, and on my ping pong delay send, and these are only there just in case. My master fader is mapped to go from negative infinity to +3dB because my sound card has its own volume control.

But, of course, my live set isn’t finished yet. I’m still working on it. :u