Adding Movement with Auto Filter & LFOs in Ableton Live @rotaris

Rotaris A quick tutorial on how to add some 'flutter' and movement to your sounds using Ableton's Auto Filter. I often use this technique on my chords to make it sound less flat.

I was inspired to creating this tutorial after watching some ELPHNT tutorials. The production value on his videos are top notch, and I wanted to do something similar. Definitely check out this channel: youtube.com/channel/UCjEK32QlJe0Dy4nXxelXrww

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Follow me on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
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Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: rotarismusic.com

updated 5 years ago

Adding Movement with Auto Filter & LFOs in Ableton Live

Rotaris 2019-06-10 | A quick tutorial on how to add some 'flutter' and movement to your sounds using Ableton's Auto Filter. I often use this technique on my chords to make it sound less flat.

I was inspired to creating this tutorial after watching some ELPHNT tutorials. The production value on his videos are top notch, and I wanted to do something similar. Definitely check out this channel: youtube.com/channel/UCjEK32QlJe0Dy4nXxelXrww

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Follow me on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: rotarismusic.com

Practice Rap - July 2020

Rotaris 2024-08-23 | Just some freestyle bars I'd recorded in July 2020.

Instrumental: Survival Tactics - Styles of Beyond

This track “Written Meditation” along with 5 other tracks is now available in my “Morsels” release.

Rotaris 2024-01-16 | ...

Till We Meet

Rotaris 2024-01-15 | Recently released 6 tracks in a project called “Morsels”. Here’s a little cheeky clip I made to first track “Till We Meet”.

Write better rap lines using this substitution technique. #writing #rap #lyricism #lyricist

Rotaris 2023-12-08 | ...

Inspired by @AbhiTheNomad’s mixtape, here’s a verse over the “Middle Class Rapper” beat.

Rotaris 2023-11-25 | Beat: Saint Kay
Trap Drums: Pattern copied from Abhi the Nomad

Rotaris - Let It All Burn (Official Music Video)

Rotaris 2023-02-21 | This nu-metal tune outlines a world decimated by climate change with fanatical, disillusioned youth bent on "resetting" the world. Audio created as part of the JUXTA art project to the theme of fire.

Stream or buy the track here: rotarismusic.com/burn

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Follow Rotaris on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: rotarismusic.com

What I learned making a beat a day for 30 days

Rotaris 2021-06-15 | I made a beat a day for 30 days in May/June 2021. You can catch all the beats I made on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic

Here's what I learned:

=== 1. Accountability is hella important ===
I knew that I had to keep myself accountable, otherwise I probably wouldn't finish the challenge. In this instance, I chose to post something publicly on my social media everyday.

For whatever challenge you choose to work on, choose a way to keep yourself accountable e.g you could ask your friends to follow up with you, or face a scary consequence if you fail to keep to your word, or sign up to a paid course so you are forced to learn or lose your money.

=== 2. Much of what you make will suck ===
But keep going anyway. I thought most my beats were average at best, but I liked some of them (even though I might've had made to make them in 10 minutes.) Interestingly, beats I did NOT like at all were the favourites of others 🤷🏾‍♂️

=== 3. Trust your musical instincts ===
If it sounds good to you, it sounds good to you!

Some days I just tinkered around until I found a melody or chord progression that sounded good, but didn't quite fit my knowledge of music theory. So I would abandon it for a while and try to force out something that works with my knowledge of music theory...only to revert back to what I originally created because my original sounded better.

Your instincts may fail you, but they can also be right!

Rotaris Live Stream

Rotaris 2020-10-16 | ...

Rotaris - Sole (feat. Dylan Hand) - Explicit - Music Video

Rotaris 2020-09-07 | The official music video for "Sole (feat. Dylan Hand) - Rotaris"

A song about sickness written in late 2019 (before COVID-19 struck).

Listen or buy the track here: rotarismusic.com/sole-listen

Huge thanks to Photography & Sons (Mattias Diesel and Johan Dirfors) as well as Dylan Hand for their massive contributions!

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Photography & Sons: http://www.photographyandsons.se/

Follow Dylan Hand on:

Instagram: instagram.com/dylanhand
Twitter: twitter.com/dylanhand
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/dylanhand

Follow Rotaris on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: rotarismusic.com

Rotaris - Cant Bear The Truth (feat. Jim Cole) - Music Video

Rotaris 2020-09-04 | A funky lil four-to-the-floor tune.

Video made possible thanks to the City of Ryde and CLIPPED.TV, as part of their DANCE PLAZA initiative.

Listen or buy the track here: http://rotarismusic.com/cbth-listen

Follow Rotaris on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: rotarismusic.com

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
I don’t really like you
I just like the fantasy
Drinking with some ice cubes
Loving all my salad days

[Pre-Chorus]
When I see you 'round at parties
All I wanna do is puke
But I smile all politely
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth

[Chorus]
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
You drink me up
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
You give me life
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
You drink me up
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
You give me life

[Verse 2]
When my lips meet yours
I just wanna drink you up
I swear this a detour
I just wanna test my luck

[Pre-Chorus]
Now I see you at the party
Still wanna go and puke
But I smile and grab you softly
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth

[Chorus]
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
(You drink me up)
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
(You give me life)
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
(You drink me up)
‘Cause I can’t bear the truth
(You give me life)

[Outro]
See you on the way down, down
See you on the way down, down
See you on the way down, down
See you on the way down, down

Rotaris - Im Right (Both Sides) - Explicit - Music Video

Rotaris 2020-07-01 | The most layered Rotaris release yet.

Inspired by fake news and the especially strange times of 2020, this song highlights the dogma and ego that's all too common — and all too human. The track can be interpreted as coming from virtually anyone, whether you're scientifically minded or a flat-earther.

Listen or buy the track here: rotarismusic.com/im-right-both-sides-listen

Follow Rotaris on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: rotarismusic.com

Lyrics:

[Chorus]
As I scroll through my feed
You can catch me tripping
Off messages I read
I smell the lies but stay sniffing
No time to go throw them hands
Wanna throw hands and the damn clock
Your pants a colony of ants
While it burns but man’s not 'cause

I'm right
'Cause I’m motherfucking right yeah
I'm right
'Cause I'm motherfucking right here
I'm right
'Cause I motherfucking write here
I'm right
No motherfucking light here
I'm right
'Cause I’m motherfucking right yeah
I'm right
'Cause I'm motherfucking right here
I'm right
'Cause I motherfucking write here
I'm right
No motherfucking light

[Verse]
"I got so much knowledge and overwhelming proof"
Y’all just wanna be ‘right’, not really know the truth
Marching to the orders altogether with your troop “soldier”
And your lack of thinking made your brain into a soup
How much research have you really done into the topic?
Why you motherfuckers get off all this Photoshopping?
Do you like the feeling of a buzz from the power?
Here's a gilded fork to go and stick into your socket
Your argument is made of vellum
I can smell your cerebellum
You incompetent buffoons are worser than a Douglas Reynholm
Have you ever thought about the consequences?
Life must be wonderful given your six senses
Keep selective memories
Contribute to killings
In this little story
I’m the hero not the villain
Part of the Avengers and I’m justified to do so
Make yourself at home in broken "logic" and your "loopholes"

[Chorus]
As I scroll through my feed
You can catch me tripping
Off messages I read
I smell the lies but stay sniffing
No time to go throw them hands
Wanna throw hands and the damn clock
Your pants a colony of ants
While it burns but man's not 'cause

I'm right
'Cause I’m motherfucking right yeah
I'm right
'Cause I'm motherfucking right here
I'm right
'Cause I motherfucking write here
I'm right
No motherfucking light here
I'm right
'Cause I’m motherfucking right yeah
I'm right
'Cause I'm motherfucking right here
I'm right
'Cause I motherfucking write here
I'm right
No motherfucking light

[Outro]
Light
Light
Light
Light

Rotaris - Through the Window (feat. Zeadala) - Official Music Video

Rotaris 2020-03-21 | Inspired by the instrumental's nostalgic sample chops and boom bap drums, this is a wistful walk through times gone by. Lyrically, Rotaris speculates on "what might have been", while Zeadala turns her gaze into her formative years in Australian suburbia. The track finally unfurls into a meditative outro underpinned by harps, flutes, and electric guitars.

Stream or buy the track here: rotarismusic.com/ttw-listen

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Follow Rotaris on:

Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: rotarismusic.com

Follow Zeadala on:

Instagram: instagram.com/zeadalamusic
Facebook: facebook.com/zeadalamusic

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Filmed by Fidel Fernando (instagram.com/oh_hi_fidelity)

Making a Short Trappy Beat (Call It)

Rotaris 2018-10-28 | A little random beat I made over a couple of sessions. Hope you find it useful/entertaining.

Also, hat tip to:

- Kevin Macleod for the elevator music ("Local Forecast")
- "Art by Lønfeldt" for the abstract painting photo (via Unsplash: unsplash.com/photos/WRBTuTZ6O-M)

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Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: http://rotarismusic.com

Freestyle Friday - 21st Sept 2018

Rotaris 2018-09-21 | Haven't uploaded anything to YouTube/Facebook/Instagram in a while, so thought I'd do something simple and record a freestyle. I'm not the best off-the-dome freestyler, and I have a few bad habits while freestyling (I often say stock phrases/templates like "you know", "start to" and "before I" wayyyyyy too often), but hey — it's still fun to freestyle and spit some random-arse bars.

Although I'm a little apprehensive about uploading this, I'm still going to upload it.

Notable highlights for me is the line about the basilisk and the line about CV Raman lasers 😂

Instrumental: Upper Egypt by The Roots (Dilla Joints)

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Instagram: instagram.com/rotarismusic
Twitter: twitter.com/rotarismusic
Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris
Website: http://rotarismusic.com

Remaking Trashy (A J Dilla Cover by Rotaris)

Rotaris 2018-02-07 | Just thought I'd try to recreate the beat 'Trashy' by the great J Dilla on his birthday. Happy Dilla Day!

Will make the Ableton project available for download soon.

Precipitation - Instrumental - Rotaris

Rotaris 2017-10-19 | An chill instrumental to finish off the last week of my self-imposed challenge to make-and-release a song each Monday for 5 weeks.

Download: soundcloud.com/rotaris/precipitation-instrumental

Im a Stupid Carnivore - Rotaris

Rotaris 2017-10-02 | Week 4 of 5: "I'm a Stupid Carnivore", a cheeky track stemming from my own diet, weak will and cognitive dissonance, I guess.

Due to time constraints, I kind of had to cheat this week and start with a skeleton track that I had created many months ago. Wish I had more time to improve the lyrics and re-record and stuff, but oh well.

Download via SoundCloud if you're keen: soundcloud.com/rotaris/im-a-stupid-carnivore

You Know How - Rotaris

Rotaris 2017-09-25 | Week 3 of my self-imposed challenge to make-and-release a song each Monday for 5 weeks. This one's a bit more pop and generic sounding, but it still has some uncommon words like 'knurl' and 'medial' — as that's just what came out in the end (in the spirit of 'underthinking').

If you happen to like it, you can download it from SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/rotaris/you-know-how

Side note: It was originally meant to be a story about a couple in California going out dancing and then an earthquake strikes, with Mother Earth personified in the hook...but this was overambitious and I didn't quite incorporate this story into the song.

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Rough Lyrics:

[Verse]
It’s a Saturday night and we out to dance
I wanna reach out and touch your hands
But I’m too scared to touch it though
You look so pretty with a lovely rose
cheeks when you smile
And those teeth
I’m like oh
Oh no please
You so hot
In this heat
In this California heat
I be like
Oh no please
You so hot
In this heat
And I’m here
Sweating beads
Hoping for that sweet release

I’m not the kind of guy that’s good with girls
I’m more the guy that likes his turtle shell
And finds it hard to deal with his caramel
tone of skin with a shade of time of kill
I like the world, I like you girl
I be lost in your scented swirl
I be feeling you like some knurls
I be feeling you like some knurls

[Hook]
You know how to move it girl
You know how to shake the boy
You know how to move the world
You know how to make the noise

[Verse]
The moment I saw you
Was hoping to know you
Wanted to launch like a spring that is coiled
Felt like a rose would grow from the soil
For each of your steps like just to adore you
Under your graces, under your beauty
A gem of a brain that’s finer than rubies
a musical taste that’s lapis lazuli
the way that you move is out of a movie
Like Banjo-Kazooie, let’s go pair up
You be the queen and I be the pharaoh
(A) genial human, cool like the air of
Medial Zurich
— Are you Coursera?
‘Cause I wanna be the one to go and study you
And I wanna be the one to fall in love with you
If I were to really tell you nothing but the truth
You be like an angel and I wanna cuddle you

A Stream and Shout Outs - Rotaris

Rotaris 2017-09-18 | (Lyrics Below)

Week 2 of my self-imposed challenge to make and release songs each Monday. It's my first attempt at a UK grime flavoured track.

Really struggled this week. Had a few starts that didn't get anywhere. I knew I wanted something different than my usual boom-bap, and finally ended up with this this cut. It's a bit dense and amateurish, but I had to make _something_.

SoundCloud link: soundcloud.com/rotaris/a-stream-and-shout-outs

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Rough lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Get that dough
Jump off yo’ bed and get that coat
This ain’t no game no tic tac toe
Jump off the pan out that stove
Dilapidate it, get up and face it
Gotta go get up and tie up your laces
Run so hard and fast on the path [that] your heart and your trail be left all blazing
Raising hell ’til you die
Spit that shit that melting your mind
Make that art that's close to divine
And do that shit that makes you alive
Yeah, yeah, that’s that truth
Stick it to your brain with a drop of glue
Let it take you to places tropical
with the white-ish sand and a water view
Ting goes pew, shoot that thing
Weaving a web with hyperlinks
And rhyming like how Tupac thinks
And I be loyal, I don’t swing
I don’t sink, I don’t swim
I be floating on that brink
As I try to go ahead bleed that ink
As I flow so smooth like fur of mink
Okay, enough of dat
I'll be working ’til I collapse
Or I push so damn hard that I prolapse
And I get mad sick and throw up the mash
I go one way I am a hash
Slashing it up like knife to a gash
On that straight like I am a dash
And on that drive to get me the cash

[Pre-Chorus x2]
Oh oh let that go
Let’s be grateful, let cats know
You know how do that bro
Let’s go shout out right now yo

[Hook x 2]
Shout out to Barefoot
Shout out to Snopes
Shout out to thinking
Shout out to goals

Shout out to haircuts
Shout out to ropes
Shout out to blinking
Shout out to pokes

[Verse 2]
Listen close to the pound of your heart
Keep on swimming — you are a shark
Try be warm like you’re a flask
And do yo’ thing ‘cause you are a boss
You are the boss, I am a boss
Make yo’ choices, cut your loss
Brush yo’ teeth and master your DAWs —
And brace yourself for moments of DoS
I be getting lost in the beat
Haunting like Karma Police
Flip it round like car in the key
and slipping like some socks on your feet
Don’t know nothing // Soc-ra- tes
My skin be so chocolatey
Brain be buzzed like a column of bees —
and yet it fits like a lock and a key

[Pre-Chorus x 2]
[Hook x 2]

Pining for That - Rotaris

Rotaris 2017-09-11 | *Rough Lyrics*:

[Verse 1]
I come from the land of the crooks where they run
Most matters of love to pinch our crumbs
Spout lies from their tongues, through teeth in their gums
They’re pieces of shit like that from their bums
Oh lord! Hate shaman-astrologers
might leave their lips all swole [swollen] like collagen
Kick ‘em to the curb, stop ignance’s [ignorance] origin
Duct tape its mouth and stop it from hollering
See, as a younger me
I drank all of that Kool-aid to comfort me
’Till I started seeing cracks in their arguments
and saw more of the truth just come to me
I began to witness my faith erode
And I started seeing these gaping holes
In their plots and schemes, and their longer sleeves
And their lies, deceit, and their ‘pocrisy [hypocrisy]

[Hook]
I’m tired of these quacks
I’m tired of this crap
I’m pining for facts
I’m pining for that

I’m pining for that × 4

[Verse 2]
These dudes — and yes, they’re mostly dudes —
Go around with their bullshit and stupid views
Exploiting folks not so fortunate with a culture that ensures that they're surely screwed
They go around pinning blame onto black magic
failures from sinning from past lives — tragic!
And these poor folks don’t have the education or access to develop their very own cabbage
The situation is so damn rabid
Men, women, children are really being battered
With nasty abuse, and still face lynching
In spots of the world that’s not really mentioned
Funny how so many women are affected
Funny how cash and properties are connected
I just really hate these snakes, cons and swindlers
This is me trying to lift peeps like Schindler

[Outro]
Once a believer
But it’s just fancy smoke and mirrors
Once a believer
But it’s poison mixed in with syrup yeah

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Like what you hear? Download for free here: soundcloud.com/rotaris/pining-for-that

Sleepy Thoughts (Music Video) - Rotaris

Rotaris 2017-07-30 | Lyrics:

I nod to the beat, I hop to the beat,
Let it spread through my bod like salt in the sea
Let it grow from the ground, I’m a farmer to be
Let me talk by myself like a soliloquy
A nominal fee is all that I ask
And it’s not to be paid in coins or in cash
Let my words kiss you lobes, lean in for a pash
Get your trunk very close like a pageantry sash
Let it warm up your soul like hooch in a flask
It’s rare that you get such a dame in a dash
… So count your blessings like a kid in kindy getting counting lessons
I cough up my rhymes sans Robitussin
that ride over beats and old percussion uh
Honestly need beats to weaken logic
that gets me off my big brown lethargic
arse, and helps me reach my state of solace
And // lack belief in the most tallest..
(the) most high, the most wise, the most kind, that folks buy
closed minds in dark rooms and closed blinds and no light
phased out like cosine to true sines like bovines
and no signs of whites not dressing like coal mines
… And it hurts my heart
It’s sharp like the pointed hair of Bart’s
So I tear apart, like a paperbark
Or I rage forth let that paper bark!
Bite down with the force of a frightened lion
Flog you with the giant belt of Orion
And leave you Mayan, [to the brink of death]
Gouge each gram, each single pound of flesh
In truth, this an ocean of orange pop
A fantasy
Dark like a panda's feet
From the top, where each stroke of a lambda meets
From the spot, where my mush meets canopy

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Footage from:

pixabay.com
videezy.com
videvo.net
videohive.net
videos.pexels.com
http://www.wedistill.io
http://www.coverr.co
http://www.xstockvideo.com

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Facebook: facebook.com/rotarismusic
Website: rotarismusic.com
Twitter: twitter.com/stellarchariot

Ableton Live: Tips and Shortcuts for Working with MIDI

Rotaris 2017-05-24 | An (incomplete) list of tips and shortcuts I use when working with MIDI in Ableton Live on a Mac.

Topics:

Shifting Octaves: 0:40
Changing Velocities: 1:26
Nudging Notes: 1:47
Micro Length Changes: 2:07
Shrink/Stretch using Handles: 2:41
Quantising Quickly: 3:07
Selecting Notes by Velocity: 3:38
Selecting Notes via the Piano Roll: 3:53
Duplicating Quickly: 4:13
Using Alt to Copy: 5:10
Drawing in Notes: 5:34
Folding/Collapsing the Piano Roll: 6:03
Auditioning Notes on the Piano Roll: 7:27
Zoom: 8:13
Changing Grid Divisions: 8:54
Fin: 10:04

Links:

Shortcuts listed in the Ableton Live Reference Manual: ableton.com/en/manual/live-keyboard-shortcuts/#clip-view-midi-editor

Links:

rotarismusic.com
soundcloud.com/rotaris
facebook.com/rotarismusic
twitter.com/stellarchariot

Ableton Live Tutorial: Microslicing Samples to Make Synths and Pads

Rotaris 2017-04-16 | A tutorial on how to take any sample/audio snippet and making a synth (well, synth-like) instrument or a pad. Shout out to my TAFE teacher Billy Green for teaching us this trick.

Demonstrated using a Simpler device on Ableton Live (Suite) 9.7.1.

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rotarismusic.com
soundcloud.com/rotaris