So you've been using Ableton Live's freezing and flattening features when mixing or to save CPU. That's great. But you can also employ these tools for creative sound design as Noah Pred demonstrates.  

Deep Freeze 

PIC 1: The context menu Freeze Track option in the Arrange view. 
PIC 2: A frozen track with devices disabled; note the Mixer parameters still available for automation.

Freezing vs. Flattening 

PIC 3: A section of the frozen track copied to an audio track.

Printing Effects

PIC 4: Frozen chord reverb tail
PIC 5: Reverse reverb sweep, frozen, flattened, edited, and reporting for duty.
PRO-TIP: Feel free to get creative and add all kinds of other effects, such as delay, distortion, and modulation for more intricate, rhythmic, and strange transition sounds; you can even replace the reverb entirely with a delay and automate all sorts of parameters before freezing to achieve even more unique results. Once printed to audio, you can experiment with further manipulation, such as time-stretching, adjusting gain, or transposing up or down by octaves.

Cold Tricks

Learn more Ableton Live Tips & Tricks in the AskAudio Academy here.

Noah Pred is a Canadian record producer, sound designer, technologist, DJ, and Ableton Certified Trainer living in Berlin, Germany. Releasing dozens of records and touring extensively since the '90s, he currently teaches a wide variety of techniques for stage and studio at the BIMM Institute. For more information, please visit: http://... Read More

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