Ableton

Point Blank are back with another deconstruction, this time with their Head of Education and Curriculum and master of Track Deconstructions, Ski Oakenfull. In the video, Ski breaks down Lil Louis’ classic track, ‘French Kiss’. If you’re new here and not familiar with what a deconstruction entails, it’s where Point Blank take a well-known track, break it down to its core elements and recreate it before your very eyes.

Ableton has updated Live to version 11.1 and with it, have added support for Apple’s new Silicon M1 chips. The new chips were announced in 2020 and while they give Apple’s new computers significantly more power and performance due to being designed by Apple themselves, it meant that the majority of audio apps needed to be re-coded for the new chip. 

Since then, we’ve seen DJ software like Serato and Traktor announce updates, but most DAWs – apart from Apple’s own Logic Pro – have been slow on the uptake, most likely due to the complexities under the hood. 

For this tutorial, Point Blank show how you can sidechain your reverb sends in Ableton Live using a few simple techniques.

Sidechain compression is a ducking effect that can be used to separate different elements in your track. It usually works by one element being sidechained by another and cancelling out a certain sound or frequency. It’s a great tool to use if you’ve got clashing elements or frequencies in your track such as a kick drum and bass and can result in a much cleaner sounding mix.

Black Artist Database (B.A.D.) has launched a series of free production masterclasses for aspiring Black artists, in association with Ableton. 

Ableton has launched Live 11 Lite, the latest major update to Live Lite, the cutdown version of Live often included with hardware purchases like soundcards and MIDI controllers. Live 11 Lite is a free upgrade for current Live Lite owners, and includes some of the features added to the full version of Live 11 including support for MPE-compatible hardware like ROLI devices, three new devices – Phaser-Flanger, Limiter and Saturator – and can now host up to 16 scenes in Session View. 

Ableton is hosting an online event called Loop Create, a one-day virtual conference for music-makers. Designed to bring people together from all over the world, attendees can “expect to gain new insights and techniques to use in their own music-making process, try out new ideas, and share the results with a community of creators … in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.”

For this tutorial, Point Blank demonstrate how you can add gorgeous textural percussion to your tracks, giving your song a more organic feel.

Ableton Live 11 is available for download as of today. The long-awaited new update to Live was first announced back in November 2020, with the public beta running all the way until February 2021. Live announced the final release date last week, and the full version is available to download. 

Point Blank are back with another deconstruction, this time with PBLA’s Jonie breaking down the BTS track, ‘Dynamite’.

‘Dynamite’ was written and produced by David Stewart and Jessica Agombar, arriving as the first English-speaking hit from the sensational Korean boyband, BTS. In the first 24-hours of the release of ‘Dynamite’, the track racked up an impressive 100m views on YouTube, 12.6m on Spotify and reached No.1 in the U.S. – another first for the band.