Velocity and recording beats live

Your beat has the right notes in the right places. So why does it sound like a machine gun?

Because every hit lands with the same force. A drummer never plays that way: some strokes are heavy, most are light. In this lesson you'll shape how hard each hit is played, then record a beat by playing it instead of drawing it.

The idea: how hard, not when

Every MIDI note carries a velocity, a number from 1 to 127 that says how hard the note was struck. In a Drum Rack, a higher velocity plays the sample louder. Notes you draw with the mouse all get the same value, which is why a programmed beat can sound flat.

Here is one bar played twice, first with every note at 100, then with the hats shaped:

AEvery hit at the same velocityBHats accented

0:00 / 0:05

Same notes at 90 BPM with the 808 Core Kit. Only the velocities change.

Shape the hats in the Velocity Editor

Open a clip and look below the notes: that strip is the Velocity Editor. Each note has a marker there, and the taller the marker, the harder the hit. If you can't see it, open it from the small triangle (the lane selector) at its bottom left.

A simple pattern that works: hats on each beat loud, the off-beat eighths a bit softer, and the sixteenths between them quiet. These loud notes are called accents, and they tell the ear where the beat is.

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Ramp a fill

A roll at the same volume sounds like a stuck note. Make it climb instead.

Along the bottom of the Velocity Editor runs a row of Velocity Controls. Select the notes of the roll, then set Ramp: the first box is the velocity of the first selected note, the second box is the last one. Live spaces everything in between evenly.

Swap the two values and the roll fades out instead. That's useful at the end of a section that drops to silence.

Small differences: Randomize and Deviation

Even with accents, a loop that repeats exactly can wear thin after a minute. The Velocity Controls give you two ways to loosen it:

• Randomize moves each selected velocity up or down by a random amount, at most the number in the box next to it. It happens once: click it, and the new values stay.
• Deviation gives each selected note a range instead of a single value. Every time the clip plays, Live picks a velocity inside that range, so no two passes are the same. A negative value lets the note play softer than its marker, a positive one louder.

The shaded boxes below the markers are the deviation ranges. They only show while the notes are selected.

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You can also set a range on one note: hold Cmd (Ctrl on Windows) and drag from its marker. Double-click a marker to clear its range.

Here's the full four-bar beat with accents, the ramped fill and deviation on the hats:

Accents, a ramped fill and deviation0:00 / 0:10

Record a beat from your keyboard

Drawing isn't the only way in. You can play the kit live and let Live write the notes, even without a MIDI controller.

Press M to turn on the Computer MIDI Keyboard (the small piano button at the top right of Live). The middle row of letters plays the white keys of a piano, starting at C3 on A; the row above plays the black keys. Drum Racks sit lower, so press Z twice to move down two octaves (X moves back up). Now:

• A plays C1, the Bass Drum
• S plays D1, the Snare Drum
• T plays F#1, the Closed Hi Hat

Look at the Velocity Editor after a take: every marker sits at exactly 100. Computer keys are either pressed or not, so they all send the same velocity. C and V change that value in steps of 20, but only for the next notes you play, not per hit.

So once the take is in, accent it the way you did above. The timing will also wander a little early and late. That's normal, and you can tighten it afterwards.

Summary

• Velocity (1 to 127) is how hard a note is struck; in a Drum Rack it sets the loudness.
• Shape velocities in the Velocity Editor: drag markers, or draw across them in Draw Mode.
• Accents on the beat turn a flat pattern into a groove.
• Ramp sets the first and last velocity of a selection, so a fill can build or fade.
• Randomize changes velocities once; Deviation varies them on every pass.
• Press M for the Computer MIDI Keyboard, Z and X for octaves, and record with a count-in. It plays every note at one velocity, so add the dynamics afterwards.

Practice

Accent the hats

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Program one bar with sixteenth-note closed hats, a kick and a snare, all at velocity 100. Then shape the hats so each beat is loud, the off-beat eighths are softer and the sixteenths in between are quiet. Compare it with the flat version.

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Three levels is enough: around 115 to 120 on the beats, 85 to 90 on the off-beat eighths, 50 to 55 on the rest. Draw Mode makes it quick: draw low across all the hats first, then drag the louder ones up.

The most common slip is changing the kick and snare too. In Draw Mode, drawing affects every note at that grid position, so select the hats first (click Closed Hi Hat in the lane names) and drawing only touches them.

Target: hats accented0:00 / 0:05

Record a beat from the keyboard

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Turn on the Computer MIDI Keyboard, move it down to the kit's octave and record two bars of kick, snare and hats into an empty clip slot with a one-bar count-in. Then accent the hats in the clip you recorded.

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If the keys play the wrong sounds, you're in the wrong octave: the position of the lit pad in the Drum Rack shows where you are. With most stock kits, two presses of Z put the Bass Drum on A.

Right after recording, every velocity reads 100. Accent the hats as in the first task. Don't worry if hits are slightly off the grid; leave them for now.

Ramp a fill and add deviation

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Replace the last two beats of a four-bar beat with a sixteenth-note snare roll and ramp it from quiet to loud. Then select only the hats and give them a Deviation of -15.

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Ramp 40 to 127 gives a clear build without the first notes disappearing. If the start of the roll vanishes, raise the first value.

Play the clip a few times: with deviation the hats vary slightly on each pass, while the ramp stays the same every time. If the hats sound uneven rather than alive, the deviation is too large.