Squarepushin on the Akai APC40 - Ableton

[AMOKIAN]

splintered glitch core!!!!!!!!!!

[danielortizdecaracas]

wtf are you crazzzyyyyesssstttt

[PunpzMusicVEVO]

I bet your name is Akai.

[muzik4machines]

also, was the "padding" composed or random hitting all the pads?

[mrbeefwellington]

@muzik4machines mostly random... but not entirely.

[muzik4machines]

a couple questions: is the backing track appearing on the grid or is is off view?

how was the ableton session set up, all the clips we see are what?, 1 beat loops of different one shots? and the clips set to legato? witho or without quantize (like 1/32nd or so?)

[mrbeefwellington]

@muzik4machines backing track is just a loop. other questions can be found in previous comments. anything that isn't answered there, I would not remember at this point. I did this video 2 years ago.

[NinjaAnonymous]

Did you make that beat? Where can I find it??

[mrbeefwellington]

@NinjaAnonymous The backing beat was from a track I made called Tacet.

[NinjaAnonymous]

@mrbeefwellington Just bought it. I appreciate the response.

[GarrettLD50]

For being completely random, you made a god damn GREAT song! haha

[TrashBrothersBest]

lets start the battle!

watch?v=IaHWmyC2pjo

[TtopMusic]

dude your thumb is like inverted

[TtopMusic]

what the fuck

[rayboc23]

now it looks like your just pressing buttons on the gridxD but great job

[Cr125rmxr]

make it fun..use your face 

[MichaelFromDublin]

this kicks ass, really man - good job and keep it up; will try to prepare similar apc set-up to explore it a bit

[LaMer0n]

какой гутапаерчивый рпальчег )))

[Brodacious95]

Sounds great, but at some points it seems like you're just mashing random buttons..

[joshuagen0cide]

You need a sturdier table, that shit's wobblin a lot bro! haha awesome vid. i don't see the APC40 used this way often, but thats the beauty of Ableton. you can use it however you want!

[gorillapowers]

awesome vid! i was wondering how you get the clips to trigger instantly rather than waiting for the next bar, which seems to be the default? any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[mrbeefwellington]

@gorillapowers you can set a launch resolution for each clip, or do it globally.

[00tonmeister00]

hilarious. if squarepusher was dead, he'd totally be turning in his grave... ;)

[MegaNalak]

Lol At this rate my Nan will be able to bust out killer beats while she's having biscuits and tea.

[gymparasite]

i broke my ankle trying to dance to this beat

[Crey1]

sounds great! I Really like your styel

[Flippy1565]

freaky



[MsLemons12]

i think you're destroying your chair. i want to be you.

[burnsometrashcans]

stuff like that would be bliss on brutal electro/dub tracks. you like the controller? i plan on picking it up!

greetings :-)

[mrbeefwellington]

@burnsometrashcans It's great. The possibilities are endless.

[DjMyNaughtyNurse]

That was fast! Thanks a lot!

[DjMyNaughtyNurse]

Really great! Which effectdevise do you use for this?

[mrbeefwellington]

@DjMyNaughtyNurse FX Rack with macro sweeping through various effects. AutoFilter, Chorus, Delay, etc.

[OrpheriuM]

@mrbeefwellington is FX Rack something that comes with the bundled apc40 version of ableton live or are you talking a physical FX rack you have?

[mrbeefwellington]

@OrpheriuM It might be included in the plugins with that version (not sure)... although you are limited to 8 effects, so would be rather limited. You would need the full version to take advantage of FX racks as I am doing.

[thejezereck]

@OrpheriuM the fx racks are in ableton live itself, granted you have to tweak the hell out of them fit them to your need. the apc40 just acts as a controller for ableton live.

[mrtavladan56]

are you actually doing something or you're just presing random buttons? :D

[mrbeefwellington]

@mrtavladan56 Both

[LuckParty]

OMG. ><

[GECHYA4BRAIN2BLOWN0]

hhhhm..... button mashing 101?

[mrbeefwellington]

@GECHYA4BRAIN2BLOWN0 yes!

[GECHYA4BRAIN2BLOWN0]

@mrbeefwellington ha. so whats up wit some legit beats?

[mrbeefwellington]

@GECHYA4BRAIN2BLOWN0 My website is in the description.

[GECHYA4BRAIN2BLOWN0]

@mrbeefwellington  aiight no doubt I'll check that out! n I see you say DiViNCi is your boy, than nigga is nice!!! I saw some ill shit on here from him he is wild as hell!

[Jungleritter]

Thanks for the vid! Enjoyed it :-)

[CosmonautBear]

I love this video. It's got me wanting to buy an APC40. I also dig the structured randomized squarepushing, reminds me of Aphex Twin.

[immattcee]

sounds ok. except it gives away how little one is doing when slapping the buttons so sloppily.

[mrbeefwellington]

@immattcee Keen observation. Finally someone understands the point of this video.

[fetconnect46]

@freemanz89 Try reading what he said. He wasnt here to brag about button pushing. Was just making a point to a friend that uses the mpc.

[troelseskild]

im loving it!!!!



[erfug]

It's cool and all, but who actually listens to this for more than 20 seconds? It's just all...blik blak bloop.

[hotnovel]

quantize FTW

[JoeWojoJoeWojo]

@freemanz89 It's all about the setup before the set. Technology is a powerful tool. 75% Preparation 25% execution.

[JoeWojoJoeWojo]

Awesome... I hope to get my APC 40 soon.

[mrbeefwellington]

@freemanz89 indeed.

[tarrychenko]

WOOOOOOOOOOW BROTHER, unbelievable. i don't got enough thumbs to put up

[Adeptmind]

Gotta love quantize haha

[skegetchy]

did you make the loops largarto and turn of the trigger quantise? Or a very quick Q trigger? Just been getting into this bit of ableton - it's fucking fun!! Great vid!

[mrbeefwellington]

@skegetchy It's been a long time and I don't quite remember. I detailed the setup in previous comments.

[skegetchy]

@mrbeefwellington ok cool i shall check em out - cheers

[wombattim]

Your hand is having a rhythmic seizure..

And it sounds awesome.

[JimvsBob]

PLEASE tell me how you've set that up! It's awesome!

[whiteblitz]

junglist massive!!! lol

[tastydolphinbrain]

Ha!  Man you are molesting that thing. Love it!

[badloop]

Well done.

[MrGrelis17]

this is awesome do you recomend it over the mpd32

[learnMax]

@MrGrelis17 It's an entirely different beast from the MPD, It has no velocity sensitive pads, only a matrix of buttons (which is awesome, but very different).

[FrozenKsalt]

JUST KILLIN IT

[SOADfan2011]

this is the craziest thing i have ever seen

[krapeach]

HOW D YOU DO THAT? I MIND HOW YOU COFIGURE THE SAMPLES?

[mrbeefwellington]

@krapeach Already described. Read.

[fangiex]

That sounded killer! Who cares if it was random, it sounded musical. I'm sure there's plenty of songs out there people like that weren't figured out all theoretically, and intentfully.

By the way the music on your website, I really dig it!

[mrbeefwellington]

@fangiex A gracious thank you for the kind words.

[TheCubetime]

hooly SHIT

[jacksonmcivor]

It's like the Skins theme song!

[LIGHTRONIX]

Now this had better not be a punful reference to Squarepusher....

[mrbeefwellington]

@LIGHTRONIX guilty as charged.

[DarkSkysify]

i realy dont like how he is just pressing what ever he can, has to know which one and the right one,

[mrbeefwellington]

@DarkSkysify Randomization = There is no right one.

[paulhoorweg]

I care about the sound!

But a trained ear might hear it's good! Keep it up!

[MrSalmon88]

i bet you like to blaze a fat one and do this shit...cause i do too

[thomp840]

very cool! one question.. how did u get the clips to launch so fast?

[mrbeefwellington]

@thomp840 fast tempo, tightly looped (repeating) samples, beat repeat

[sillygoose169]

i have to honestly say... this is the coolest fuckin video on youtube

[tifius]

What a faceroll

[ceilingkatt]

ohhhhh so thats why his name is squarepusher

[JoeWojoJoeWojo]

@ceilingkatt HAHAHAHA!!!!

[ihopeyouredone]

So sick!! Getting one of these in the next few weeks and would love a little button-mash jam between tracks in a live set. Out of interest, what have you got routed to the Macros you used? Beat Repeat and some kind of pitch-shifter?

[dudesons441]

So you can button mash on this thing and make sweet music?

[delldroid]

Bangin!

[SomeRandomCat]

Amazing... could you please tell me how long it took you to learn that?

[mrbeefwellington]

@SomeRandomCat I played around for a few hours with prepping samples and tweaking the set before recording this. It is all fairly random and there wasn't much to learn.

[chordazone]

tastebeef dotcom killer jams.. some serious shnit...dig it!!!!Funk it all right????

[Yojimb0]

This is so excellent. I'm amazed to know that there's other people on the same insane level as davinci :)

[hideyourface]

This is going to be the dumbest question ever, but as someone who's aspiring to make similar electronic music (without any background in it whatsoever,) what's the difference between the APC40 and the MPD32? Besides the obvious pad differences, they seem quite similar to the uninformed.

I hope you, or someone else can help me out here!

[mrbeefwellington]

@hideyourface Not a dumb question. The MPD is just a MIDI controller. It sends trigger and controller data to Ableton. Each pad, knob, or fader can be assigned to control just about anything within the program. The APC is also a controller, but it has 2 way communication that makes it a little more versatile. For instance there is a red box that outlines the clips in Live that are currently mapped to the APC pads. From the APC, you can scroll to a new set of clips, or different tracks entirely.

[djteck76]

@mrbeefwellington  nice post man !!!!!!1

[mrbeefwellington]

@hideyourface ...also the Macro knobs will update to give you control over the currently selected device. So the APC is just a more dynamic way of interfacing with Live.

[hideyourface]

@mrbeefwellington

Man, that's a lot to take in. Sounds really comprehensive, though. Which of these would benefit me more for making music in the style of BATHS and Daedelus (even though I know he uses a Monome?)

[mrbeefwellington]

@hideyourface The type of controller you use has no effect on the sound of your music. I'd say the MPD is more suited for production, while the APC is geared more towards performance. Also the MPD pads are velocity sensitive... better for programming drums. Hope that helps.

[chinesespiders]

The APC rocks! The boundaries become pretty much limitless with Max for Live.

[moNkje]

awesome... i like to hear more of that

[divineclown]

ppl obviously dont know who square pusher is....sucks for them

[TheMtnbkr17]

Nice button mashing skills

[schrock1]

That was greatness. just saying thumbs up if you agree.

[Vortigon]

All that matters in music is whether it sounds good or not... it makes NO difference HOW the music is made only how it sounds. I think this sounds great. He had the idea to use those samples in that way and creates a cool sound, and for that he deserves respect.

If you think music is about 'how' you create it and not about 'what it sounds like' you should not be part of the music scene.

Respect fellow musicians and give this guy some respect for making cool beats.

[GraFZhL]

@Vortigon As long as you can deal with looking like having some sort of mental illness, fine.

[6t9nez]

I like it......Jus spazzin out.

[neonemu]

You know, this shit sounded sick. These idiots who are hating on the video are just jealous that you own one and that button mashing actually came out sounding cool. Frikkin 'tards. Aphex Twin anyone? Breaks? Anything? Jesus... it sounds good. Glitchy breaky goodness.

Noice one bruv!

[mrbeefwellington]

@neonemu Gracias... some day I will get around to making another, where I actually plan out and practice something better.

[DaSindeGeJa]

@mrbeefwellington no need to plan out if you make shit like this without a plan. keep it up

[djstolenface]

the digital mozart..........

[UltraWill]

Haters gonna hate....dope video :)

[mrbeefwellington]

@Takayours you obviously comment on videos without reading the description.

[BRICK135]

@mrbeefwellington IN THAT POCKET!!!!! SICK!!!!

[Takayours]

i'm sorry, you obviously don't deserve that controller

[bizzyfingers]

i actually liked this =0) its kind of my theory on scratching... random as a motherfucker

[t0psecretshit]

i can imagine you getting so into it that you start breaking the things around you and then eventually the apc explodes. anyway i enjoyed your video and i'm definitely thinking about purchasing one. thanks dude!

[gregorxd6]

fuck the haters man!! its about pushing limits and seeing where is will take you

[Usethebanana]

@gregorxd6

Exactly! There were some crappy parts in there, but I definitely heard some nice squarepushin as well! Keeps stuttering brother! :o)

[jakesandersonaudio]

cool vid. I'm definitely getting one of these bad boys! just need to save some £££'s... I know I could make money with one of these hahah they look too fun

[WookieMeatloaf]

i honestly enjoyed watchin that more than the long boring instructional videos that ableton has for this thing! im pretty sure im getting myself one!

[ChillBroify]

it really appears that you have no idea what you are doing. i love electronic music but this was kind of just like playing mortal combat with a 5 year old. button mashing.

[mrbeefwellington]

@ChillBroify Button mashing was the point of the video... Kudos for your keen observation.

[swiper06]

Amazing! Great session it really got me in the right mood – very good, I heard every drum talking.

[fattyJNL]

Twelve bucks says he's good with the ladies.

[cursedchimera]

now if you add some bassline hits to go with that funky playing, it would be square-tastisc :)

[4elovekrot]

шо эта???)))) называется "а дайка я попробую кнопку вырвать хотя бы одну!!"")))))))))))

[DnSmD]

aphex twin style :))))

[Darkness2181]

lolz now you just gotta throw a sick bassline down like squarepusher :-D cool video.

[psmowe]

you just added some rimstick sounds to each pad, didnt you ?. than you played some with the pitch aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand -> there it is !. a "Squarepushin on the Akai APC40 - Ableton " youtube video .!

[mrbeefwellington]

@psmowe There is a little more to it than that, but "easy" is kind of the point of this video. Congratulations on being so intuitive to figuring that out.

[psmowe]

@mrbeefwellington no problem .

[EliottLadesch]

Si en fait... Tu joues, t'es un DIEU, baise-moi.

[EliottLadesch]

Hahaha tu joues même pas man !

[moNkje]

me like very much ! :o

[MinimalZOMBEE]

nice man thats sicc!!!

i will buy this beast next month hehe ^^ ableton is almost here

[moretreeslessbush101]

True precision, that's badass. I love how the whole fucking table is rockin hahah

[Zadran61]

de la merde

[mrbeefwellington]

@Zadran61 en effet

[JONrulesz]

and in 0:55? thank you

[mrbeefwellington]

@JONrulesz Autofilter

[supernick3000]

incredible



[JONrulesz]

which is the effect that you use in second 0:25 in the rotary button?

thank you

[mrbeefwellington]

@JONrulesz Good ol' Beat Repeat

[PooieHead]

I am unimpressed with this button masher

[mrbeefwellington]

@PooieHead Too bad... Akai & Ableton liked it.

[MrBlingBlingNr1]

i laught really hard while watching this video. The fingers are going cracy all over the apc and it stills sounds cool.

I´m gettin an apc 40 for sure.

[mrtavladan56]

how can you play clips without them being beatmatched?

[mrbeefwellington]

@mrtavladan56 Clips are set to launch on a 16th note grid.

[grizbazzen]

Cant wait at all.. 1 week an i get my apc... this is just awesome entertainment. :)

[tonesproject]

you totally inspired me to go grab an apc. at first i wanted it just to be able to dj, but this kind of creative use can really open up my productionszzzzz...

picked it up yesterday, been swamped with sessions recording people, but today is the day. i may never come out of the studio again lol... thanks a lot, asshole hahaha

[mrbeefwellington]

@tonesproject Good luck. Hope you enjoy itzzzzzzz.

[teoruz]

can someone tell me whethre I can use this piece if I run LIVE 6 ?? They said it comes with a Live 7 ..lite I gess ? What about if I own LVE 6 and buy the APC40 with Live 7 Cdrom ? would it work ??

[mrbeefwellington]

@teoruz First result in my Google inquiry... "Ableton - Akai Professional APC40

Software system requirements. The APC40 requires Ableton Live 7 or higher."

Cheers!

[teoruz]

@mrbeefwellington thanx but that i knew what i am tryna make sure is if i get the Live7 version the piece is coming with , can I install that and use it smoothly instead of Live 6 i am running now ?

thanx !!

[mrbeefwellington]

@teoruz Yes, but it ships with the limited "APC version". You would have to upgrade for the full application. There is a features comparison chart on the Ableton website.

[TheGreenchiller]

WOW i never thought someone would ever again develope a new type of beat !!! this is great (unless it was really your idea)

[transplants125]

this is one of the best apc40 demos ive seenon youtube.

[worldclassleader]

Does Ableton record that entire sequence and allow you to "go back" and dub or redit certain portions in real time? (I'm a total newbie!) thanks!

[MubangaDNB]

@worldclassleader yes

[SyncrisisVideos]

@worldclassleader RT "Does Ableton record that entire sequence and allow you to "go back" and dub ..." Yes. You can trigger "record" in ableton or on apc, and all launches, knobs, etc are recorded and sequenced as in normal program operation.

[mrbeefwellington]

@worldclassleader yes it does. It can capture anything you do for post performance edits.

[carlosbc619]

Hey brother, great stuff!! I own an APC40 also and I haven't been able to find the option or preference that lets you launch the clip the very second it is touched by the finger and not have it wait until the following measure starts. How can I do this?

[mrbeefwellington]

@carlosbc619 You can set the launch resolution for each clip within Ableton (in the clip launch settings). Set it to "off" and it will trigger instantly.

[realcoolking95]

Dude, looks like the table is gonna collapse....

[PrevalentProductions]

@realcoolking95 LMFAO TRUE

[SwFt1987]

is this speedy j?

[mrbeefwellington]

@SwFt1987 nope. beefy b.

[grizbazzen]

Haha this is great. :D when i first started with midi controllers i couldnt afford those smart thing,, so i use an old logitech driving wheel,, hehe ill bet i was one of the first in the world to drive guitar.. ;) thinking outside the box is why humans reach new funny goals. :D thumbs up!!. :)

[AdjustedMusicJay]

have you checked out Traktor with the APC40? watch?v=RD1IXOkxOUo

[ASharawadji]

hahaha love your video man, im considering to buy an apc40 and all ive watched is this macho dj techno house bullshit

sun ra also did a lot of random half ass stuff and people kiss his dead ass i dont care if its intentional or not

this is a good video.

[mrbeefwellington]

@ASharawadji Thanks. It's good to know that someone gets it. It was just a little experimentation, trying to think outside the square and have a little fun with this thing. Sure I could have mixed some tracks with it, but who would want to watch that?

[ASharawadji]

@mrbeefwellington exactly, and besides technology is made for making human lifes easier and the result is much more interesting than conventional structures of music take for example free jazz and noise music, its still random stuff and the results are soo much more interesting, and this has the plus of being in perfect time

i go by the cagean philosophy of "all music"

even if its not intentional its still great music. id encourage you to keep exploring outside the box, inside has been explored

[thenewyardbirds]

your my hero

[sdafsar]

This could have been a TV Spot.

[henryfirth2008]

*shucks* wow you're just so talented 8o)

[soulformusic4020]

that was fuck'n awsome! VOTE UP

[GMulholland80]

use a table not a stool man. thats an apc40 with parkinsons. luv the randomness tho.....

[InfernoGER]

@GMulholland80

hahahaha nice comment :P