Unsurprisingly, Live will drop out of record automatically at the Out point. With Punch-in activated you can hit record before the In point and Live will wait until that point is reached before dropping into record. Yet another useful trick is to right-click any selection in the Arrangement and choose 'Loop Selection'.ДЄ count-in can be specified here, but it's better to use the automatic Punch-in feature and set your own pre-roll.The three buttons between the loop values enable Punch-in, Looping and Punch-out. If you select the loop brace, you can nudge it by the grid value using the left and right cursor keys, and by its own length with the up and down cursor keys. As well as adjusting the start and end points, you can pick up the loop brace in the middle and move it without changing its length. The simplest way to set In and Out points is to trim this so-called 'loop brace' with the mouse. These points are also represented graphically in the time ruler area above the timeline (as can be seen between bars 81 and 97 in the main picture on the previous page). The value on the left represents the In point in bars and beats, and the other value is the length between the In and Out points. These are used to set In and Out points for playback looping, record punch-in/out, and loop recording. The Punch In and Out and Loop controls in the main control bar.The screen above shows the Punch and Loop controls that appear in the control bar. This allows you to slot overdubs precisely into the correct location, and is also useful when you are recording on your own and don't have any hands free.

Drop-in CentreД«eyond the basic recording procedure above, there are a number of helpful features that automate the process of dropping in and out of record. Armed tracks will drop into record instantly when you press the record button. One notable difference when you're recording in the Arrangement is that there is no quantising of the time that recording starts and stops. To fix this, undo the recording, then press the 'back to arrangement' button in the control bar (as in the screen above). If you begin recording and regions start being written into other, unarmed tracks, this means that some Clips are playing in the Session view. By default the keyboard shortcut for 'record' is F9. You can even put the Arrangement into record with no tracks armed, then punch individual tracks in and out of record by clicking their record-arm buttons. You can either start playback first and then punch in, or click Record and then Play to commence recording immediately. Recording is initiated with the main Record button in the control bar at the top of the screen. If you need to arm more than one track you can Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac) subsequent record-arm buttons. First, arm the track and make sure that the input is appearing on the meters. The 'back to Arrangement' button (third from right) stops all Session view Clips from playing and plays all Arrangement tracks.Recording into Live's Arrangement view works in a similar way to recording to tracks in most traditional DAWs. Unfold the track you're going to record into, so that you'll be able to see the waveform (as in the screen above). You can make all the settings from the Arrangement view if you have the routing (the 'I/O' button) and mixer (the 'M' button) views enabled at the bottom right of the tracks area. This is best achieved in a traditional linear fashion, by recording directly into Live's Arrangement view.ДЇirst, create a new track, and assign its input to wherever your mic is connected. Now you want to record a vocal performance over the top. You've created the basis of a track by recording a number of Clips in the Session view, then you've recorded them as a song in the Arrangement view. For example, once you've fleshed out the main structure of your song and assembled it in the Arrangement, you may want to overdub some extra fills and points of interest, or even add vocals or (if you must) guitar. However, there are many occasions when it's more appropriate to record into the Arrangement view. This way of working is, after all, one of the main things that sets Live apart from the other DAWs. I've not done a survey, but I'm guessing that most Live users do the majority of their recording in the Session view.

As Live has gradually made the transition towards fully fledged DAW, the recording side of the program has become increasingly sophisticated - so we're going to look at some tricks to make basic recording easier.

Ableton live looping