Ableton Frequency Shifter

Ableton Frequency Shifter Download
Ableton Sound Design Frequency Shifter
Ableton Default Frequency Shifter

Simple can be super, as Ableton's Frequency Shifter Device proves. In fact, it's often overlooked for sound design purposes... when in fact, it could be exactly what you need. Rory Dow demonstrates.

The Frequency Shifter is a small, innocuous looking device from the standard Ableton Live Library. It's easily overlooked but can be a powerhouse when it comes to sound design.

Frequency Shift vs. Pitch Shift

Often confused, and similar in nature, it's worth knowing the difference between Pitch Shifting and Frequency Shifting.

Pitch Shifting: Shifts the incoming signal by musical intervals. This is done by multiplying or dividing all the frequencies within the signal. To pitch shift a signal by +1 octave, we multiply each frequency by two, thereby preserving the harmonic relationships within the signal. Pitch shifting is the classic sound of speeding up or slowing down a tape, or playing a sample away from its root note in a sampler.

In this Ableton Live Tutorial, Dubspot Contributor and Ableton Live Certified Trainer Josh Spoon shows us how to use Live's Frequency Shifter effect. English-Russian dictionary of computer science and programming frequency shifter. Ableton Live — Screenshot von Ableton Live 8 Basisdaten. Ableton Live Frequency Shifter. Ableton Live Glue Compressor. Ableton Live Grain Delay. Ableton Live Multiband Dynamics.

Frequency Shifting: Again, this involves changing the frequency content of a signal, but in a very different way. Frequency Shifting works by moving each frequency in a signal by a set amount. For example +1000 Hz. Every frequency within the signal is shifted by the same amount and this means that the harmonic relationships within the signal are broken, resulting in a very different sound. Some describe the sound as metallic or similar to ring modulation.

The Frequency Shifter is a great sound design tool.

The Frequency Shifter device is super simple. There are Coarse and Fine knobs to set the amount of frequency shift. There's a toggle button to change from pitch shifting to ring modulation and a '˜Wide' button to create a stereo effect by inverting the Spread value in one channel so that one channel is shifted up, whilst the other is shifted down. There is also a Drive button which enables a distortion effect, although this is only available in Ring Modulation mode.

On the left side of the interface are the LFO controls. There are six possible waveform shapes, and the amount of modulation applied to the Frequency shifting is controlled by the Amount knob. Rate controls the LFO speed and it can be synced to host tempo. Finally, stereo effects can be created by using the Phase and Spin controls. Phase changes the phase between the LFOs used for the left and right channels and Spin offsets the LFO speed for each channel.

At the end of this course, students will be able to produce music with Ableton Live and be on their way to being a professional. Frequency Shifter.

So what can I do with it?

Phasing/chorus effects: Used in small amounts, Frequency Shifting can create wonderful phasing/chorus effects. On guitar, electric piano or anything you'd normally use a chorus on, try a shift of a few Hz (just using the fine control) with the Wet/Dry knob set to 50%. Try experimenting with the LFO to create more traditional chorus effects.
Alien/Robot Voices: Try shifting a vocal by around +/- 500 Hz. Use Wet/Dry to taste.
Tuning Drums: Used in small amounts, frequency shifting can make a nice alternative to pitch shifting when tuning drums. Use in the range of +/- 100 Hz the results will still sound natural. Leave the Wet/Dry control at 100%.
Frequency Shifting Delays: Make your own frequency shifting delays by placing a Frequency Shifter after a Delay device on a Return Track. Set the Delay's feedback to 0% and use Live's own feedback routing to send the Return Track back to itself. You'll need to enable the Send on the Return track manually as Live disables them to prevent feedback disasters.

In order to allow Live to create a feedback loop by sending a Return Track signal to itself, you must first enable the Send.

The Frequency Shift device is a fantastic part of the Ableton Live library. Whenever I need a chorus or phaser effect, I often reach for the Frequency Shifter first. And for alien, sci-fi and sound design applications, it's invaluable. All hail the Frequency Shift!

Making Space: Choke Group Assignments

Let's cook up an 808 bass line. We only need one sample - and a nice, long-decay 808 kick sound will do nicely. Drag the sample onto one of Drum Rack's pads, and it'll load directly into a Simpler. We're going to need more than just the one note that this sample provides, however - so copy the sample over to a few other pads. Now, if you adjust the pitches of the samples (using the Transp. number box in Simpler) you can set up the notes of your bass line.

You'll notice, however, that if you trigger another note before the previous one has fully decayed, they'll clash and your ears will endure a short mud bath. What we need is for the previous note to stop sounding when we trigger a new one, and this is called 'Choking'. To set this up, click on the middle little button in the group of three, beneath the On/Off button where the pads are. The button is called Show/Hide Chain List.

Now, click on the button labelled I.O which has just appeared on the left, called Show/Hide Input/Output Section.

This shows us the Choke column. Here, we can select which pad we would like to mute the currently selected pad. As my 808 kick samples are on pads 13-16, I'm going to have them be muted by the adjacent pad, as shown above. Now, when I play two pads in fairly rapid succession, the notes don't cross!

Choke assignments are a simple way of making your drums rely on each other and act together as a single unit of related sounds. It is for this reason that all of ModeAudio's Ableton drum rack presets are designed with chokes already preassigned.

Easy Access: Macro Control Assignments

The bank of eight rotary controls which pop up next to the drum pads are our macro controls. Once we have built up some further effects processing on our hits, we can right-click on controls in the effects units and chose 'Map to ', which greys out the original control and marks it with a little green square. Turning the corresponding macro now has the effect of controlling the assigned parameter. It also lets us assign multiple parameters to the same macro, meaning we can make more complex adjustments than would otherwise be possible with just a mouse, or a single knob on a controller.

This means that we can do things like create a 'Tone' control, which is adjusting the parameters of several EQ peaks and filters at once. Or we could drive the parameters of Saturator and Redux units to create a 'Dirt' control. The possibilities are endless!

Percussion Section: Beyond Drums

Ableton Frequency Shifter Download

These techniques can be used to build patches that can imitate traditional percussion instruments, and also go beyond them to create whole new sound palettes. For example, pitching up our 808 kick sample by a couple of octaves and applying some light distortion, before sending it through a frequency shifter to shift the frequencies back down, makes for something that sounds like a huge glockenspiel with train tracks for keys. Copy the chain over to further pads, adjusting the pitches and frequency shifts, to get your full scales of notes. In this case, the frequency shifter is warping the frequency relationships of the harmonics added by the distortion effect, lending the results an inharmonic, metallic quality.

Another fun thing to try is tuning hi-hat samples. If you pick samples with an audible pitch - i.e. not just a burst of white noise - then tuning the samples to the key of your tune allows you to tie rhythmic and harmonic elements together. You can create interesting melodic elements by tuning open and closed samples differently, and vary up your hi-hat loops considerably!

Check our drum and percussion samples section to find some material to get tuning straight after download. Be sure to explore our custom tools for Ableton Live also.

Download 800MB of free sounds to get you started, or listen to our latest releases!

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