- Utilizing a multi-color printing process, the Ableton Live Keyboard skin shortcut keys are color-coded and heat fused to ensure long lasting durability. No chips or cracks. Ableton Live Keyboard Covers safeguard your keyboard from dirt, spills and wear and tear, allowing you to protect your investment in your Mac.
- Ableton Live 10.1 Keyboard Shortcuts: Free Ableton Live Pack #179. Ableton Live 10 and 10.1 introduce some really useful keyboard shortcuts that can drastically improve your workflow. I’ve put together a PDF file that you can print for easy access.
The keyboard shortcuts in Ableton Live are as robust as they are useful, but there are a number of features that fall outside the scope of the application's default shortcuts. These are often rather specific to an individual's needs & generally speaking using a midi controller is a great way to speed up those areas of your workflow. If you're a laptop-based producer working in multiple locations, however, you won't always have one on you. In these cases, one may turn to Live's highly versatile key mapping features.
You can easily enter key mapping mode at any time by pressing cmd (ctrl) + k. The keys you choose are arbitrary, but you'll find certain ones will work better than others for certain purposes. Feel free to experiment!
Search and visualize default keyboard shortcuts for Ableton Live 8 and 9. For Mac keyboards with or without a numeric keypad, and for generic PC keyboards. How to use: Click on a category on the left, then hover over a function on the right. Alternatively, enter a keyword into the search input field, and hover over the results. The appropriate keyboard shortcut will light up. Commit to memory! Mastering the Ableton Shortcuts will save time while producing songs. Some of these shortcuts are used at regular intervals. Download Ableton Shortcuts PDF! Ableton shortcuts cheat sheet, ableton shortcuts cymatics, ableton shortcuts for mac, ableton shortcuts keyboard cover, ableton shortcuts not working, ableton shortcuts printable.
keyboard overlap
Live already makes substantial use of your computer's keyboard, even outside the innumerable modifier-based shortcuts. I've made this infographic to help you avoid the keys that are feature-laden or unmappable:
keyboard (blue) of course represents the built-in single octave keyboard, a wonderful asset for demoing sounds or quick composition on the go. You can override these if you wish when your needs require it, but I prefer to leave it alone.
system (red) represents unmappable keys that are used as modifiers & computer-related input.
ableton (yellow) are the keys that already have function in live without modifiers, including z & x (keyboard octave change), c & v (keyboard velocity change), & tab (switch between arrangement & session views).
Keep in mind that Live distinguishes between capitals, so if you want to map some of these default shortcuts without overriding their functions, you can. For example, b enters draw mode, but you could map B to turn the metronome on & still preserve the lowercase b for draw mode.
save to template
There are many, many functions you can key map - device parameters, mutes, track selection, etc. These can be handy in a pinch on a per-track basis, but my focus today will be on ideas for key maps that are useful in all projects thateffectively expand Live's functionality & keyboard shortcuts. As such, you may consider saving your favorites into your default template - this way, every time you load up a new project you have all the keyboard shortcuts you find useful without having to map them each time.
You can check out my guide to reference tracks for an example of a useful default template you can build with key maps. Below, you will find 5 ideas to get you started.
locator create/delete/select
If you're like me, you use a lot of locators to keep your project marked & organized. The ability to jump around to the most important sections of your tracks is fantastic & key mapping can make this process even faster. I prefer < & > as my selectors because they look like their function, & ? for set/delete because of its proximity to those keys.
tap tempo
Tap tempo is in many ways the most organic way to enter tempo. Clicking on a mouse will do fine, but pressing a button feels a lot more solid & natural. It can be handy to have this feature ready & waiting when you load up a project so it's one I definitely recommend saving this to the default template.
metronome on/off
If you're doing any kind of live recording & want to sync to the grid, the metronome is indispensable. it has always bothered me there is no default keyboard shortcut for turning the click track on and off but fortunately key mapping makes this possible. Once again, adding this to your default template can pay dividends in convenience going forward.
automation arm
If you're modulating a lot of parameters, automation arm is a feature you'll be turning on an off as required throughout your project. It's a minor improvement to not have to move & click the mouse to do this, but over the course of many projects & automation arming it in this way can be a huge time-saver.
record
Creating key maps for existing keyboard shortcuts can feel redundant, but for certain shortcuts & uses it makes sense. If you're on a mac, Live's default record shortcut requires you to use two hands to reach the fn & f9 keys at the same time. There are plenty of situations where you'll want at least one hand on your instrument in preparation for playing & the more simple single key press proves useful. I use r as it's not taken up by any other function by default.
master volume snap
You'll often want to check your mix at low levels to hear what pokes through. Of course, you can turn down knobs on your interface or mixer, but mapping the master volume fader to snap to a specific lower level will be quicker & more consistent every time.
check mono compatibility
Here's an excellent bonus tip thanks to reddit user u/ProfessorStrangeman:
Ooo! I have one to add!! I've got a Utility on my master bus with the width set to 0% & the on/off mapped to the tilde '~' key so I can quickly mono reference while sound designing & mixing.
This is definitely one that's worth adding to your default template - it's easy to do but you don't want to have to set it up every time you load a new project. It is always a good idea to check for mono compatibility and having a quick switch at your fingertips can really speed this process up.
That's all I have for this article, but if you have a use for key mapping you can't go without, I'd love to hear about it on Facebook or Twitter.
Ableton Live 10 has been out for a couple of months now. Beyond the incredible new Wavetable synth, Multi MIDI Clip editing, the Capture feature, awesome effects and everything else there were a ton of workflow improvements too. While some of them felt a bit awkward to get the hang of after spending so much time in the early versions of Live, within a month or so I've found the changes to be genuinely useful and very welcome!
I figured I would share my top 10 shortcuts in Ableton Live 10 to help you speed up your workflow and get you more time for the fun part… producing good music!
This set of shortcuts focuses on the Arrangement View in Live. Though some of them are applicable to Session View, not all of them are.
1 - Toggle Automation Mode – A (Windows / Max)
This is by far my most used keyboard shortcut in Live 10. I love it. Pressing A on the keyboard hides and/or reveals automation lines for you tracks.
It also does the same for the clip fade handles too. Hiding one will reveal the other which is one reason this shortcut had to be added. Having those fades right on the edge of the clip at the click of one key is awesome too!
2 - Split Clip at Selection – CTRL + E (Windows) CMD + E (Mac)
This little shortcut blows my mind. I used to have to highlight a section of audio, then click it and drag it a little to the left or right, and then drop it back down in its original place to make a section. This process would have to be done over and over again. But now, just select then CTRL + E and boom goes the dynamite.
3 - Zoom to Arrangement Time Selection – Z (Windows / Mac)
Highlight a section of your tune and press Z. Live will zoom in and focus on that part for you instantly. No more clicking and dragging up and down on the top of the timeline. Another huge time saver that I find myself using all the time.
4 - Full Zoom Out – Shift + Z (Windows / Mac)
This shortcut goes hand-in-hand with the last one. This will zoom you all the way out. It will also fold (collapse) any channels you have unfolded giving you the biggest picture you can get.
Also, a bonus shortcut while we are on the subject, the S key (Windows / Mac) will fold all your channels without zooming out letting you see more of the channels of larger projects.
5 - Reverse Audio Clip Selection – R (Windows / Mac)
Reversing audio files is something that I personally do a lot in my projects. I used to have to highlight the audio clip and move the cursor all the way down to the sample panel and hit the Rev button. Now, simply press R and move forward. Brilliant!
6 - Activate / Deactivate Computer MIDI Keyboard – M (Windows / Mac)
Because of all these glorious new shortcuts the Computer MIDI Keyboard isn’t activated by default anymore. But it does have its own shortcut. Simply hit M and you’ll activate it, then M again to turn it off.
7 - Arrow Keys to Nudge / Move Clips – Left / Right (Windows / Mac)
If you have a clip, or multiple clips or your whole project selected you can now hit the left or right arrow keys to shift those clips in the timeline. The jumps will happen by the current grid size. Below are a couple of bonus shortcuts for you that will help you utilize this one above better.
- Command / Control + 1 to Narrow the Grid
- Command / Control + 2 to Widen the Grid
- Command / Control + 3 for the Triplet Grid
8 - Temporarily Bypass Snapping While Dragging – Alt (Windows) CMD (Mac)
Another great feature new in Live 10 is when moving automation points they snap to the grid. However, you might not always want that. Simply press and hold Alt (Windows) / CMD (Mac) to temporarily bypass the snapping feature for the duration the key is pressed. This also works for moving audio and MIDI clips in the timeline as well.
9 - 2 New Ways for Working with Clips in the Arrangement
First, you to change the segment BPM of the clip. With automation lines hidden, hold shift and click the upper part of the clip’s waveform at either end of the clip. Before clicking you should see a bracket when you are near the edge, then when you press shift the bracket should get an arrow next to it. This allows you to adjust the segment BPM for that clip. This is helpful for double or half time changes or getting creative and unexpected results.
Ableton Keyboard Shortcuts
Second, you to change the clip’s Loop bar. With automation lanes hidden, hold Ctrl/CMD + Shift + click on the waveform in the clip and drag left or right. This will adjust the loop length and position for that clip.
Keyboard Symbols Mac
10 - While Renaming, Go to next Track – Tab (Windows / Mac)
This is absolutely brilliant. Have you ever just gone down the rabbit hole and made a project with 30+ channels and didn’t have the time to name a single one? Then, stepping back for a moment you remember how important naming channels can be. Well now you can rename them all in a breeze.
First, you should know the shortcut for renaming anything in Live. That’s Ctrl/CMD + R
If you rename channel one for example, instead of hitting enter to cement the change and exit renaming mode, you can now hit Tab and jump to the next channel and rename it too. You can do that all the way down your project. This has already saved me a ton of time!
These are just a few of my favorites. There were a lot more added to the update. I can’t recommend enough that you go and read Ableton’s shortcut help document and see what else there is to be discovered. Perhaps there is something not listed here that is perfect for your workflow!!
Keyboard Shortcuts Mac Symbols
Learn more about all the new features in Ableton Live 10 in teh Ask.Audio Academy: https://ask.audio/academy?nleloc=category/audio/application/ableton