Ableton/Live/UG/13 Audio to MIDI/01 Slice to New MIDI Track
- Slicing cuts the audio into pieces of time, one per MIDI note, without analysing pitch or rhythm. The pieces keep playing the original sound.
- The dialog slices by beat division, by transients or by Warp Markers, and offers a Slicing Preset. A Rack holds at most 128 chains, so Live refuses settings that would make more than 128 slices.
- Your own slicing presets go in the Defaults folder of the User Library.
- Preserve warped timing keeps timing changes from warping; with it off, slices sound like the raw audio.
- The result:
- a new MIDI track with a clip holding one note per slice, in a rising chromatic sequence;
- a Ableton/Instrument/Drum Rack on that track with one chain per slice, each a Ableton/Instrument/Simpler loaded with its slice;
- the Drum Rack's Ableton/Macro controls mapped to envelope, loop and crossfade settings across every Simpler, as set by the slicing preset.
- The sliced clip forms a rising "staircase" of notes. Editing the notes, or dragging Drum Rack pads onto each other to swap their notes, plays the slices in a new order.
- Each slice has its own Drum Rack chain, so it can take its own audio effects. To share effects across several slices, select their chains and press
Cmd+G (Mac) / Ctrl+G (Windows) to group them into a nested Rack, then add effects after it. - MIDI effects placed before the Drum Rack, such as Arpeggiator or Random, rearrange the slices as they play.
- Slicing suits drum loops but also works on voices and ambient textures.
