Ableton Live: Get Organised And Improve Your Workflow (Live Stream) 

Whoop! Thanks for coming y'all 🙏 This was my first ever live stream on this channel, so if you've got any comments, feedback, things that could be better, etc. let me know! Also, let me know what topics you want me to cover in future live streams! 🤓

The hardest thing with DAW’s is just remembering all the stuff you can actually do.

What a great video! I was lost trying to come up with how to organize things, and I did not even start to think about the User Library; I always thought of that as an un-changeable Live system folder.

elphnt you are a god

can you expound on how to make "VIEWS" in live and to recall them?

After installing Ableton Live, this is the FIRST STEP to being productive. I have NO IDEA why your video is not featured on the Ableton Live website as "REQUIRED VIEWING...Sounds like someone is playing DEFENSE on you right now....Great Video and possibly the MOST IMPORTANT Ableton Live Video.....of all TIME.....

So THAT'S what ELPHNT looks like!! 😱 Thanks for the ace content as always!

I've used Ableton for about 10 years and there were some really great tips in this video that I wish I'd known! Thanks for sharing

GREAT !!! The best tips to improve our workflow and go from beginner to advanced. Thanks !!! Greetings from Mexico.

Thanks for doing this buddy! This is imo one of the most important topic when working with a DAW (which basically is just a funny [musical] files manager) and yet nobody ever took the time to go in-depth with the topic. Very often I see people confused about how this all works, why they "lose" their files and so on, and since it's not possible to explain this quickly with a few lines on e.g a forum it's always hard to help others on this specific topic. I'm so glad I can now link to this video!

Most people would rather watch a cool video about how to make music, but you give us a good fundamental understanding of something that will affect our workflow all the time. Thanks!

I personally think that workflow improvement and organization is the most safest way to just keep going and finish your tracks and get more and more idea out of it. It’s like recovering from a huge headache, and suddenly all of your ideas are more clear and you really don’t have any more pain to just being focused. That’s said, I need to organize my stuff rn, so yeah, thanks you Tom for your time and I really really appreciate your content, most useful and clear Ableton Live instructor out there

I needed this so bad. I struggle so much with file management and this just blew my mind. thanks so much for sharing this!

I literally beg ableton to add a few more colors / folders to the top left

The perpetual confusion about files and folders and Ableton. Oh why the hell does it have to be so fucking complicated. Thank you for your very informative video. It's worth its weight in gold.

Hey! I was wondering if you could post a video about workflow in Live12 with the changes in the Browser, the pros and cons with Collections vs tags list, etc … Some kind a update of this video. I will love to know your opinion and approach with this "confusing" new browser. Thanks!

I watched you present this on Daisy a while back and was so blown away by your tips that I forgot to take notes. I'm so glad you decided to share your stream because now I can go back and actually implement your advice. Thank you!

Starts at 1:25 ✌️

After watching countless hours of video content on how to use Ableton, and mixing, mastering, sound design, ad nauseum, I find this video to be one of the most useful of all of them. It's really dry stuff but it's super important and it's not really covered anywhere else, that I've found. Thanks so much!

Live uses 32-bit float for all internal processing except for the mix summing which is 64-bit

Thanks for sharing your discoveries. I am an organization freak in that I am always looking for new ways to "simplify" the workflow. I hardly use some of the Categories so fully incorporating the Collections section and tidying up the side browser seems like a win. Cheers ELPHNT.

thank you so much for saving these to watch later! I've been wanting to tune into your livestreams but didn't always get the chance to due to timezone differences

Hey fantastic tutorial, i tried adopting it but i found lives preview doesnt work, even if you just move a factory preset to your user library. Do you know of any work arounds?

this is so good. After more than 10 years on protools I've been climbing all over the DAW ladder at Live

Absolute gold, thank yo so much!

Excellent, thank you so much for this!

Man I tried this and it really messed up my project folders. I am going to try just puting most everything on an external HD top level. Really cool idea though.

Thank you! I have some bad Ableton habits I need to clean-up:-)

if you just copy your amxd files to your user library in the finder, live will not make a referene file/ it will just add the actual device, which you then can add to collections of choice. Installing a amxd by dragging as instrument first will create a mess. I simply copy any amxd files to a amxd folder im the user library. after that you can aimply move them around in folders and add them to collections if needed. just don't drag a new amxd file to a channel in ableton as a install method.

Hi ELPHNT, one of the hardest thing I've found moving to Ableton was how the Return Tracks are set up. You can't move them or group them, and creating audio tracks and routing them to act as Return tracks is a huge hassle. Then I saw Illangelo (The Weeknd's producer) using Effects Chains to act as Return Tracks, so most tracks on his production will have an Effects Rack with the clean chain, reverb chain, 1/4 delay chain, 1/8 delay chain etc. Do you have any insight on this?

I wish I’d watched this sooner. Lost important vocal files for a track, didn’t know at all about the collect thing

Thank you for EXXELENT tips and very clear walkthru ! And thank you for recording this HERE, as I could not be present when it went live. 💚 You did one LIVE on - Advanced Sidechain - which I unfortunately missed, would love if you could do it once more and record it here as well , that would be much appreciated. LOVE

Absolutely superb tutorial, thank you very much indeed!

Excellent (still only 17 mins in) - now I only have 12 years of mess to clean up !!!

amazing tutorial. One thing to consider which i missed is that its important to have all your amxd files in a fixed folder structure/location. Because when you start moving/organizing amxd devices on the finder level you loose the link from the adv files and you will have to reconnect them, which can be a pain. 👍

btw I m in love with NTPD 2.. my fav max 4 live plugin ever.

GOAT

Big virgo energy. I love it.

As someone with ADHD I feel like organisation of my daw really gets me down and stops me being happy making music. I really hope this helps when putting it into practice because it seems really solid. Ty Mr ELPHNT

It would be really cool if you did a livestream on how to make these cool instrument racks. Also a stream where you just compose music to see ypur workflow and learn! Thanks for all the amazing content

Hi! Thanks for the this:) do you have a video showing how you record your tutorial videos? Audio routing, which programs you use for screen recording etc…?

This is such great straight forward lecture on the library. Thank you! Would love to hear how your approach has changed with Ableton 12. Thanks again!

Thanks Man! I've been hunting for a In depth lecture into this for a while. So I can't help but be nosey, can I ask what you keep in the Building folder?

i hate drum rack sorry :) i use xln xo...

Great stuff, linked up, thanks friend 😎🖤🍭

Heya, have you had any more thoughts about best ways to get organized with the refreshed browser in Live 12?

Awesome content.. question though, for the collections.. is there a way to keep all the 'presets' that come with ableton. .example : i save the 'Scale' device into my user library's new MIDI Effects folder, which is connected to the 'Collections'.. however, the dropdown of all the stock 'Scale' presets are no longer available without going into the 'Categories', which is what im trying to avoid usuing.. is there a workaround for this? do i have to manually create these folders which will contain the Initialized preset at the top, then the rest of the presets below?

When I move an .adg sound in a User Library Folder I lose the ability to preview it, and it creates a duplicate in the source folder. Why?And Is there a way to fix this? Thanks!

Excellent, please more of this! I’m interested to know whether you arrange your instruments into further subfolders based on the type of sound they create (e.g, bass, keys, like Ableton have)? And where do you draw the line on what you copy into your user library and what you keep in its existing place in Ableton?

Thanks for video my friend. I have a question that is confusing the tar out of me? I am ordering a new MacbookPro. They have option to upgrade internal SSD drive to 4 TB. My question can you use a single internal SSD drive to install everything (operating system, Ableton, Komplete, Plugins, documents and both audio and video projects? I like the idea of having a simple workflow and use a cloud based service or secondary drive to backup samples and projects. Just wondering now that they have these super fast processors and huge SDD drives if using a secondary drive is necessary. Thanks

This is great! Question for you: where do you save your user library? External hard drive or on your device?

a lot of the stock audio and midi tools include presets. is there a way to move the tools along with their presets to the user library? Thank you for the tips bro!

Yes!!

What’s the difference between a pack, and a max for live device? Why are there two different places for these, and how can I combine them both into one? My Max for live tools feel unorganized.

under liked video

😊ty

Hi Master ELPHNT, I have a question. @ 12:52 we see your structure (folders) in the userLibrary SAMPLES Folder. How do you do this. When I import extern Instruments (sampler) or store devices with samples, all files automaticaly (chaoticly) check in at the SAMPLES Folder (without any structure - an I hate this). would love to know how you organize this. cheers.

I've never used User Library. I have my sample library in dropbox, and have that as a custom location. User library is so much better 😂 also. I've lost projects due to missing files. It kills me. So i was gonna start exporting samples to the project, so i never lose the samples. Because it's so dumb that ableton doesn't just do that. How did i not know about collect all and save 🤦🏻‍♂️ you've saved me so much. Welp. I'm gonna have to watch the whole vid cause i clearly don't know squat haha

3:24 5:44 9:48 11:08 12:05 14:41 17:11 18:15 19:04 20:37 amxd file 22:47 adg file 24:15 26:07 manage files dialogue 27:05 collect all and save 28:36 29:06 30:04 manage project 31:42 test project 32:30 37:59

I notice that live is not making folder if I save Drum rack or samplers with samples from factory packs

Such an amazing video! I love organization and workflow and this was just what I needed! One question... if I want to save samples (.wav or .aif) into my User Library, what would you recommend doing? Whenever I drag & drop it saves as .alc with all the processing. What if I just wanted the sample itself and for example one shot that I created in my project? Thanks for you help!

Hey, thats a great video! Do you know of a way to get rid of unused samples in i.e. drumracks or multisampled sampler instr? That would be great to have... :)

Thanks for this. I love the fact you can save the 'channel strip' but one thing I noticed is that the track delay setting is not saved with it. I wonder why?

Best Video I've seen on Library so far. Thank You!!!

Good video and some interesting tips, but still a bit fiddly and a large upfront management cost for those with large libraries or moving computers, and all completely unnecessary if they just allowed us a few more collections colours.

Thanks!

Two things: 1. Not sure of it's me, but your screen is completely blurry on the recorded stream. 2. I was under the impression that .als files were not important to many people. I have my settings to not create them. ??? Edit: For some reason, every time I open Simpler it always has this random hat sample loaded. How can I change that? TY!

Love ya, man.

tysm for the great video. How do you preview sounds for instrument presets that dont have the "auto preview" once you put them in your user library/collections?

Super awesome video bud! Love that you covered saving custom setups. Also, super annoying when people join a live chat stream and start B.S.'ing about crap that has absolutely nothing to do with the video. (You know who you are.)

What a shame I missed the session. I might have another question. I am struggling with files management when sampling an instrument. For instance I sample an external synth 2 octaves 3 notes per octave at 3 different velocities. Then use sampler to create an instrument out of it. Then I save the instrument into my user library and files get copied into imported. There it might get really messy. I tend to create a folder in my user library where I want to store these samples. Basically, within the user library, I move these samples to designated folder. However, then I have to relink the files within the sampler using manage files and save again. Is there anything easier? I have noticed that you touched the subject matter in your video and I noticed that you have the samples organized in a similar way I do. I really appreciate your answer. Best regards Roman

Thanks for sharing your Ableton organisation. I find your explanations very helpful and have just refreshed my user library. 😃👍🏻

Amazing video, thank you so much!!

You're videos are great and helpful. Thanks very much!

Oh you have no idea how much frustration you have just lifted off me! I’ve been pulling my hair trying figure out how to save samples without the project they’re in.

I’ve made a organized folder 📁 for all my presets sounds and plugins as you show in this tutorial. Te Folder is called Studio and it’s located at user library. But when I asign a color to organize it in the different sections of the browser they appear duplicate every time.

looking for the link to the discord server

Wonderful video, thanks!

What is the "C" under the "X" crossfader?

The best video on sample/project organisation out there. Super clear and detailed, thanks a lot!

Specially when it comes to using live with push, this tutorial is a game changer, i felt like going to the chiro but for music production lol def needed it and didnt know!

Just for clarification, for example, if I were to save a rack to my User Library (on the cpu hard drive) with multiple wav files that are stored on my external drive, would it also save those wavs on the cpu hard drive in that samples folder? Would it move them there? Or just reference them still on the external hard drive but just “store” in the Abelton browser? Thanks for any help

🙇‍♂👏👏👏

Thanks! Another amazingly helpful guide. Really appreciate you sharing your knowledge like this.

Thanks for this video, very useful!

Are you South African?

big help. thanks for the video.

Thanks for the great tutorial!!!

Hey great 1sty livestream! Filer systems organization is so important its great to see this for ableton

🙏🏼

Thanks for sharing your approach, very well thought through.

Thank you so much for all the amazing tips!

Great video bro! You help me so much!

12:51 - is this still true? Doesn't seem to happen when I do it (Live 11 26 Apr 2023)

Creating your own sound library is a sure way to get a distinct consistent sound.

great tutorial 👍 im fan your content, its useful.

great video. thank you

I needed this video so much. Thanks man. 🙏

can someone pls share me the ableton icon he has in 3:29 (in his icons bar) :)

Will files in our User Library from Live 10 be detected as unused files in Live 11?