James Dymond Tutorial Filter Cutoff Tip For Ableton

Hi everyone,

Glad to be on board with the SA community.

Really enjoying James Dymond’s tutorial for 138 uplifting trance. It may be something you guys likely know but thought I’d share it in case you may not. James discusses a very valid point in the Leads video of his tutorial that when working with leads and pads the filter is usually fully open way before you get to opening at 100%, sometimes it’s fully open at around 50%. This has been a headache in previous tracks I’ve done with automation clips all over the place. While James solves the issue in Fruity Loops, here’s the method to overcome it in Ableton:

  • Select synth

  • [Cmd/Ctl] + G to group the synth into an instrument rack

  • Click the downward facing arrow on the synth tab in the midi channel and select ‘Configure’

  • Move the Filter Cutoff on your Synth to highlight this parameter

  • Where Filter Cutoff is now highlighted, either right click or [Ctrl] + Left Click, in the menu select ‘Map To Macro…’

  • Where it states ‘Filter Cutoff’ on the synth plug in on the midi channel, again right click or [Ctrl] + left click and select ‘Edit Macro Map’

  • The parameter will appear in the top left hand side of the screen, where it says ‘Max’, adjust this til you find the filter is fully open while playing through a midi clip.

  • Once you found that, again right click or [Ctrl] + left click on the Filter Cutoff Parameter on the midi channel insert to unselected ‘Edit Macro Maps’.

Your Synth will now be open at full cut off even when it’s not fully open on the plug in GUI, allowing track automation to be a lot easier.
:relieved: