Tarekith Performance EFX for Ableton Live

Version 9 Updated 05-13-2013 IMPORTANT! Because some of these racks use effects only available in Live 9, you must be using using Ableton Live version 9.04 or newer for them to work properly! These racks will open showing only the 8 macro knobs, and ideally this is all you will ever need to see. To install the rack, merely use the Live browser to navigate to where the 'adg' files are stored on your hard drive after unzipping, and drop them onto an audio track. If you wish to store the racks in your current default Live Library, open your Live preferences and go to the "Files Folders" tab to see where your library is located:

On-Off Button Control Effects:

The racks have been set up to use in two ways, simply toggling them on and off, and tweaking the macro's via Live's automapping functions. If you only use the QWERTY keys on your laptop in your DJing, or your controller has buttons you can assign, your best bet is to map buttons or keys to toggle the racks' on/off button. I have set up the racks so that the volume of the effected audio is as close as possible to the unaffected signal. This way you can turn the effect on and off without any large jumps in volume. If your controller is in the list of supported control surfaces in the MIDI Preferences in Live, you can control the macro knobs of each selected rack as well. Again, I've tried assigning the most appropriate controls to all macro knobs, so you should rarely

need to open the Device Chain views.

Chop Shop

This is a slicer type effect that cuts the audio signal in and out at regular intervals. Additionally, tempo synced delays follow the slicing, and you can control the frequency content of the delays, and how much of the audio signal is 'sliced'.

Dirty Rack

This effect is a subtle distortion/bit reduction/down-sampling effect, it reduced the lows and gives the sound a bit of bite. You can radically shape the type and tone of the audio degradation with the 8 macro knobs on this one, though be default the effect is more or less pretty tame.

Super Luper

Ah, the infamous Super Luper. I get more people interested in this effect rack than any other one I've built. It uses Beat Repeat to repeat any audio you pass through it in a one bar loop. Following Beat Repeat is a autofilter and a delay to help add some more excitement to the repeating loops. You can map a controller to the Loop Length macro knob to shorten or lengthen the repeating loops as well. Keep in mind that while you are only hearing the same bit of audio looping over and over, the song is still playing in the "background" as it were. So when you turn this off, don't be surprised if the song is playing later than it was when you first turned the effect on. Look for version 2 of this plug in further down the page.

Table Tennis

This is a pretty basic delay effect rack, tempo synced to work at any DJ set tempo you might want. The delays are spread out to the side some, nothing too fancy with this one.

Single Knob Control Effects, low to high:

The following effects are set up a bit differently. As before, the only thing you really need to have shown on the racks is the Macro Knob view. On these racks, the first Macro knob is the primary control, and should ideally be mapped to knob on your controller. At the knob's lowest 3 values (0-3), the effect is completely off. As you raise the knob, the effect slowly fades in, until at 127 all you hear is the effect. I made the lowest 3 values turn the effect completely off to give you some 'wiggle room', in case for some reason you can't always get your controller to transmit it's lowest value.

Philter Phuker

This is a pretty simple hi-pass and lo-pass filter, the first knob turn it on and increases the amount of filtering. The second Macro Knob is the low pass filter, raising this knob clockwise will take more and more of the bass away until only the treble sounds remain. Macro Knob 3 is a lo-pass filter which does the opposite, lowering it counter-clockwise removes more and more of the high end, making the sound muddy and deep. Be careful of knob 4, it distorts the signal more, but can also make the signal very loud.

Washed Out

This is a smearing, delay based effect, good for turning things into ambient drops and breakdowns :) Macro Knob 1 turns the effect on or off, and increases the depth of the smearing. The rest of the knobs add subtle changes to the tone of the smearing. Good for chill moments, might be too much for full on dance

tunes (but go for it anyway).

Super Luper v2

Map a hardware controller knob to the first Macro knob. When the knob is all the way counterclockwise (i.e., 0), the audio is untouched. Turn the knob just a small amount to introduce the looping (just barely turning it makes it just like Super Luper 1), and as you increase the knob movement the loop gets smaller and smaller.

Single Knob Control Effects, mid-point off:

The following racks work somewhat differently, I created them so that a single knob per rack would not only bypass the rack, but also allow you to select the depth of two different effects. Most likely this will be the format I use for all my effects racks in the future, as it gives me the greatest amount of control with a single control. In each Rack, you'll want to map the first Macro Knob to a midi knob on your controller as before, and set each Knob so that it is pointing at 12 o'clock, straight up. Midi controller range 60-68 on all Macro 1 Knobs is a completely dry zone, your audio won't be affected by the racks at all. This is where you want to leave the knob when you aren't using the effects, the default off position.

As you turn the knob to the left (59-0, counter-clockwise), you will slowly fade in the first effect. At the knobs far left position, the first effect will be heard 100% wet. As you turn the the Knob to the right of 12 o'clock (69-127, clockwise) you will fade in the second effect until it is heard 100% wet. The audio level should stay pretty consistent throughout the knob range, so feel free to tweak away without worrying about overdriving the channel levels. However, tweaking Macro Knobs 2-8 in these Racks CAN overload the channel, depending on the audio you are playing and the position of the Knob. Use these Knobs with care.

Twister Filter

This is a dual High-pass and Low-pass filter. Turning Macro Knob 1 to the left will low-pass filter the audio, removing the highs and mids. Turning this Knob to the right will high-pass filter the audio, removing the lows and bass. Macro Knobs 2 and 3 control how sharp both filters act if you want additional control or wish to fine tune it differently.

Module Later

This rack is a Phasor and Chorus unit. Turning the knob to the left slowly adds the Phasor aspect, turning the knob to the right does the same for the Chorus effect. There's also a little bit of random autopan on each effect to help it gel more smoothly, turning the audio all smooth and transient free.

Slice Or Dice

This one is a gating plug in which chops the audio up into divisions in time with the song you're using it on. The left side of the knob uses a sine wave to gate the audio, and the phase is offset somewhat. This makes it a very smooth effect, at moderate settings the audio seems to pulse gently in time with the music. Turning the knob to the right gates the audio with a square wave for a very abrupt on and off effect. The default gate time is 1/8th notes in both cases, though you can change this

with the other Macro Knobs if you want. Both sides also use a very short delay to help make the effect more trippy and easier to mix in. Remember, left is soft gating, right is hard gating.

Delayed Reaction

Another delay based rack, as you can tell I like these. It can be overkill if done too much, but done subtly, it really adds a lot of control to your mixing IMO. In this rack, a left turn of the Macro 1 Knob adds a very short delay to the signal, around 1/16th note long. This is a good subtle effect when you just barely make the delays audible. Turning the knob to the right does the same thing but with delays that are much longer. Good for really drawing out soft endings to tunes, or tearing apart a breakdown.

Avalanche

This effect is another one that's good for deconstructing audio in a rhythmic sort of way. Turning the Macro 1 knob left adds small delays that sort of trickle away, turning it to the right adds larger and darker sounding washes of delay. The key to this rack is to turn the knob slowly, and the effect will build up nicely into a really nice sounding wash.

Glowsticker

I admit, this one is a bit tongue in cheek, those on the ALDJ forums will know I joke around about flangers a lot. It's the effect for those people who just can't seem to find the sunrise. :-) Left turns use shorter tempo synced flanger sweeps that pulse with the music, right turns add longer sweeps that are more like the traditional DJ flanger effects people might be used to.

Retorted

Retorted is a distortion hybrid effect, combined with a pulsing aspect. Turning the knob to the left introduces s more digital sounding distortion, with some bit reduction and down-sampling added. The pulsing effect is synced to 1/16th notes. Turning the knob to the right adds a more analog sounding distortion, with a slower 1/8th note pulsing aspect.

Sound Stream

Sound Stream is modulation based effect rack that adds a subtle octave shifted copy of the audio playing through it underneath. Turning the knob left introduces darker overtones, with the audio shifted down an octave. Turning right introduces brighter sounds and audio pitch shifted an octave up. This one is an interesting effect, it had very different results depending on the audio your feeding through it.

On And On

On And On is a new delay based effect, this one geared more towards 4/4 dance music, though it'll work with anything. The actual delays are less noticeable than some of my earlier racks, less obvious and more in time with the music. Left turns equal 1/4 note intervals, right turns of the first knob equal 1/2 note intervals.

Frozen Smear

Frozen Smear is a good transition effect, uses a lot of reverb to reduce a song down to almost a single tone. Turn the Freeze Knobs to basically capture the current effect sound regardless of the audio you're feeding it.

Matter Chatter

Matter Chatter is a new rhythmic effect, works best if you slowly turn the first knob instead of slamming it around. Some some cool stereo effects in time with the music.

Chaos Hive

Chaos Hive is a weird one, does some strange atonal warbling to the music, with the Queen setting being slower and the Worker setting being a faster effect.

Broken Circuit

Broken Circuit is a lo-fi effect rack, good for minimal and idm styles of music. One of those racks I've always wanted to make, even if it seems pretty simple and basic. Different flavors of the distortion depending if you turn left or right.

RePulsor

RePulsor is another rhythmic pulsing effect, one that can have a lot of different variations if you play with the Twist and Pattern knobs.

Displacement

This is a cool auto-panning effect rack. Turn the knob left to get a really slow bounce back and forth between the speakers. Turn it to the right to increase the panning speed.

Follow Me

As anyone who'd used my effects racks knows, I love delays. Well, here's another one. I have some gigs coming up this summer, and decided I wanted a new delay rack to use. This one is more hypnotic and a lot less ping pong style like my previous ones.

Ghostly

This is a pretty wild one, great for turning things into ambient washes. Left turns give you a darker, deeper tone. Turning to the right gives everything more presence.

Grass Seas

One of my favorite racks, this is a really trippy, bouncy, just plain grooving build-up maker. Turn the knob slowly all the way to the left and just let it hypnotize you. Turning to the right speeds it up some.

Brake Check

Wild rack that messes with the time of the audio passing through it. Sounds similar to the effect you get when you turn off a turntable while it's still playing, after taking way too much acid. Sounds different if you turn the knob fast or slow in either direction.

Time Check

Same idea as Brake Check, except the speed up and slow down effect is synced to tempo. Turning to the right works best when you turn the knob slowly.

Buzz Kill

Turns the audio into a buzz saw effect that increases intensity with knob rotation, different flavors if you turn left or right. Use the Shape knobs to alter the tone and style of the buzzing.

Lock & Key

This rack transforms your audio signal into key specific resonators, turning the knob to the left adds minor key overtones, turning the knob to the right adds major key overtones. By default the root pitch is set to C2, but you can change this for both the major and minor keys with the two knobs on the bottom of the rack. Try turning the Minor Major knob all the way to one side, and then alter the root key for fun build ups!

Red Shift

This is a really weird and wild effect using Live's Frequency Shifter and Reverb plug-ins. I don't even know how to describe, so just play around and get lost in the chaos.

DJ EQ's
Zone:62 DJ EQ v2

Zone:62 DJ EQ is modeled on the Allen & Heath Xone 62 DJ mixer's 4-band EQ section. I used white noise to plot the frequency response of each of the EQ bands on the mixer, and

then replicated those with Live's EQ8, focusing more on how each EQ cut frequencies, rather than boosted them. Please note that the Xone:62 mixer EQ's only boost by 6dB, while each knob in this rack will boost by 2 to 3 times that amount. No way around that unless I set the knobs null points to something other than their middle position, which no one wants. The bottom 4 knobs allow you to change the EQ points of each band if you want, with the original values listed in case you don't like your changes. You can double click on a knob and type in a value with decimal places for finer precision.

EQ 3.8 v3

EQ 3.8 v3 is my attempt at recreating Live's EQ 3 using the cleaner sounding EQ 8 plug-in. It also has the benefit of having the knobs default to straight up and down when no gain is applied, a common complaint about EQ 3. The rack is set up as if it was a default EQ 3, so you might need to change the Freq Low and Freq Hi knobs to suit your usual way of working. PLEASE NOTE: This rack has been optimized for the new EQ8 in Live 9, it will not function properly in earlier versions of Live.
As always, hope you enjoy these and find them useful. On a more personal note, if you like and use these Effect Racks, please consider a small $1 donation via PayPal to the email address below. Even a dollar here and there really helps me and my family out more than you can realize. Thanks, and I hope you have fun with these Effects Racks.

Tarekith
Tarekith.com Tarekith@Gmail.com